A New History of French Literature ed. by Denis Hollier (review)

Book Reviews259 DENIS HOLLIER, ed. A New History ofFrench Literature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989. 1150 p. New is the key word in the title of this monumental work. It is new in its application of the new historicism, where literary events are placed squarely in the context ofthe sociocultural events which spawned them, to the compiling of a literary history. R. Howard Bloch, one example among many, situates his discussion ofthe Serments de Strasbourg and ofthe Chanson de Roland within the debate over the status ofAlsace and Lorraine. He points out that Medieval studies grew out of France's desire to reclaim her two earliest literary monuments. Joseph Bédier's efforts to repudiate the notion that the inspiration for the Chanson de Roland was German coincides with France's efforts to win back Alsace and Lorraine from the Germans. Hollier's enterprise is also new in the sense of its innovative organizational structure, a structure which holds the work together and gives it a strong sense ofunity in spite ofthe more than 165 contributors. A single author or literary phenomenon may be discussed in three or four entries from quite different angles. Such is the case with classical theatre, Proust, surrealist poetry, African writers writing in French, and Baudelaire. Each entry is preceded by a date and a headline, which may or may not be a literary event. A more general literary or artistic topic follows the headline and guides the discussion. There is an element ofthe unexpected as the reader discovers certain headlines that at first do not appear to be central to a history of French literature. Jay L. Caplan's entry, "1759, 23 April: The Duc de Lauragais Pays the Théâtre-Français an Indemnity of 12,000 Livres to Remove Spectators from the Stage," takes up changing tastes in eighteenth-century theatre and Voltaire's reluctance to give up the classical conventions of tragedy—hence his reluctance to allow spectators on the stage to detract from the king's entrance. Elaine Marks includes an event that the generalist may have overlooked—the publication of Jean Larnac's Histoire de la littérature féminine en France (1929)—in order to explore central questions concerning gender and literature throughout the century: sexual difference, women writers, feminist inquiry, and the definition of literature. Many of the dates are predictable, as they should be in a history of French literature, but those which surprise by their inclusion help us to take a new look at French artistic phenomena and serve to expand the canon of works to be studied. Richard Howard, for example, chooses the year of Gide's publication of Corydon (1911) to develop his discussion of exoticism and homosexuality in Gide's work in particular and in twentieth-century literature in general. I do not mean to suggest that this carefully edited work skirts the major phenomena in the literary and artistic life of France in order to highlight peripheral events. On the contrary, all of the principal events receive careful attention in a lively and provocative style providing fresh insights to generalist and specialist alike. The most helpful articles for the generalist are those which begin by showing how the interpretation of major works has changed through the centuries. These same articles also provide innovative interpretations using contemporary critical methods ofanalysis. The net effect is to make the reader aware that literary history is an ongoing process and that social and political 260Rocky Mountain Review climates influence our perceptions of artistic works. We see this quality in Francis Higman's contribution, which credits Calvin, rather than Descartes, with originating the chiefcharacteristics ofFrench style: simplicity, sobriety, definition, and clarity. In a different light, Lucienne Frappier-Mazur shows how the crisis in the printing industry necessitated the serialization of books in periodicals and thus informed the structure ofthe nineteenth-century novel. Authors had to accommodate the tastes of a less sophisticated audience as they learned to highlight suspense and drama at moments where the story could be cut and continued in a subsequent installment. Several entries allow the general readership to penetrate the mysteries of highly technical literary forms. Stephen G. Nichols shows us how...