Twentieth-Century French Literature

REVIEW l 'wentieth-CentuJ'Y French Literature About twenty-five years ago, when the DOW rarely mentioned name of Anatole France was, in university circles at least, one to conjure with, much discussion arose as to whether so much emphasis on giants of nineteenthcentury French literature was not responsible for neglect of modern supermen . Discussion grew to conviction. Anatole France and his compeers were gradually bowed out of academic and other galas to make room for CODtemporary stars. So many of the latter were admitted that it became embarrassing to distinguish head-table guests from those who were DOt. Guides, charts, and keys to the relative importance of the newcomers were few, incomplete, often biased. Today, when it is convenient to consider contemporary French literature as belonging to the last fifty years, books are appearing which attempt to give a general, inclusive, and objective picture of this varied period. One recent example is Helmut Hatzfeld's Trends and Styles in Twentieth Century French Literature (Washington: Catholic University of America Press [Montreal: Alvernia Publishing Company], 1957, pp. x, 262, $4.75). As the title indicates, the author's survey is made with emphasis on matter (trends) and manner (styles) in an effort to find common denominators for both. Professor Hatzfeld is careful to point out that his presentation which "steers a middle course between a literary history and a literary essay" is intended as "a projection of the trends into a space extending from 1900 to 1955." The enterprise is carried out by assessing recurrent subjects and styles in salient works by nearly two hundred writers, all this within the limits of 234 pages. An introductory chapter, "The General Situation," outlines the book's principal postulates. Professor Hatzfeld's appraisal of trends is summed up in a statement to which he subscribes: "All important 20th century authors, including the serious dramatists, are convinced that the task of literature is not to copy life but to offer free and poetic interpretations of it.It Twentiethcentury styles, on the other hand, are mainly of three interrelated kinds: the monologue interieur, the stream-of-consciousness technique, and the simultaneous narration of different events. The ensuing eight chapters take their titles from as many predominant trends or clusters of trends, treated in turn, discussions of style being worked in concurrently. Chapter I, "Individual and Group in Tension," examines the widespread REVIEW 311 preoccupation with all types of struggle between individualism and collectivism as offered in works ranging from Jules Romains' seventeen-volume novel Les Hommes de bonne volante (here summarized in seven and a balf pages) to such short examples as Vercor's Le Silence de la mer and Merle's Week-end a Zuydecoote. The second chapter treats a trilogy of related themes-sex, earth, and clan-stressing the work of Colette, Barres, GiaDo, Ramuz, the brothers Tharaud, and Camus. Chapter III, linking the subjects of "Introspection, New Aspects of Love and Acte Gratuit" is, not surprisingly , by far the longest, a third of it being devoted to the work of Proust, another third to that of Mauriac, Julien Green, and Lenormand. and the rest to that of some dozen authors, including Gide and Cocteau. The fourth chapter concentrates on various forms of evasion--exoticism, fancy, and dream-as typified in works by celine, Alain Fournier, Julien Gracq, Brasillach, Maurois, Radiguet, Sagan, Bosco, and Gheon. Works by Sartre, Camus, Simone de Beauvair, Anouilh-and Jacques Prevert-provide the background for chapter v, "Existentialist 'Engagement,' " which, because of its closely connected subject-matter and consequently simple structure, is the best section of the book. The sixth chapter tackles the difficult theme of spirituality as revealed by works of Peguy, Emile Baumann, Claudel, Bernanos , Gabriel Marcel, Simone Weil, and others, which, it would seem, were chosen, to borrow a phrase of the author's, "according to the principles of quality, importance and spiritual originality," the last, apparently, being attributable to Roman Catholic Christians alone. Chapter VII, the shortest, concerned with abstract art and pure poetry, discusses the work of such poets as Eluard, Queneau, Cocteau, St.-John Perse (whose true name is incorrectly given) and deals succinctly with those associated with the "quere!!e de la...