Birth and Death in Nineteenth-Century French Culture (review)

The articles collected in this volume were first presented at the third annual conference of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes in April 2005. The contributions are drawn from scholars from across the globe, some of whom will already be familiar to students working in the field of nineteenth-century French studies. The volume's title conveys something of its ambitiously broad scope, which is further reflected in the wide range of approaches to nineteenth-century French studies which these articles represent. Scholars of history, literature, culture, art history, philosophy and comparative studies will all find material of interest here. Despite this variety, common threads and shared concerns link the essays in this volume, and these are neatly drawn together by the editors in their invaluable introduction. Birth and death are presented as twin themes; the editors remind us that as much as the nineteenth century is often seen as an age of new life and rebirth (in terms of industrial and artistic process, the 'birth of the individual', the birth of the novel and the development of an urban population), it is simultaneously the century of decadence and degeneration theory, and one which was marked by a fascination with death and a widespread preoccupation with criminality and moral decay. This breadth of possible avenues of research is rationalized by organizing the essays into four sections. The first, 'On Textual Genesis, Translation and Resurrection', reflects the editors' observation that the limited number of representations of birth often leads to this theme opening onto the broader areas of gender, politics and literary creation. This section opens with an informative essay by Claudine Grossir, 'George Sand: La Genèse des fins de romans', which reminds us of the practical considerations involved in creating 'art' (notably, the pressure of deadlines), while reiterating the closeness of the relationship between birth and death. This association is carried through to the second section, 'Narratives of Birth and Death'. Barbara Giraud's 'Soeur Philomène ou comment la mort s'invite à l'hôpital' is particularly well researched and will prove a valuable resource for students working on the Goncourts. Kiera Vaclavik's study of katabatic narratives (i.e. those involving descent into and return from an underworld) for young readers once again flags the association between birth and death. This links nicely with the third section of articles, 'Problematising Maternity and Femininity'. Of all four groups of articles, this one gels especially well. All the essays in this section are equally worthy of attention, and scholars working on Zola's Fécondité will find Carmen K. Mayer-Robin's study of midwifery and malpractice in this work particularly illuminating. The essays in the fourth section, 'Aestheticizing Bodily Death', consider both the attention to the physicality of death in its various portrayals and its associative significance. This group of essays concludes this rich and varied collection of articles, which will prove an important resource not only to scholars working on representations of birth and death, but to all those working more broadly in the field of nineteenth-century French studies. Above all, this collection serves as an impressive reminder of the high level and varied approaches of contemporary scholarship in nineteenth-century French studies.