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Reviewed by:
  • Aragon, trente ans après ed. by Patricia Principalli, Erwan Caulet, and Corinne Grenouillet
  • Angela Kimyongür
Aragon, trente ans après. Sous la direction de Patricia Principalli, Erwan Caulet, et Corinne Grenouillet. (Recherches croisées Aragon/Elsa Triolet, 15.) Strasbourg: Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2014. 270 pp.

This volume is the latest in a series that began under the auspices of ÉRITA (Équipe de recherches interdisciplinaires Elsa Triolet/Aragon), which came into being in 1988, initially as a CNRS research group. The current collection of essays is dedicated to Michel Apel-Muller, who died in 2012, and who was a key figure in research on Aragon, having played a leading role in the work of ÉRITA, in the administration of Aragon’s bequest of his papers to the French nation, and in the creation of a research and cultural centre at Aragon’s former home in St-Arnoult-en-Yvelines. The book’s title is a reference to the thirtieth anniversary of Aragon’s death and hints at a commemorative aim. However, equally important, if not more so, is the editors’ intent to offer an affirmative answer to whether Aragon’s writings continue to be relevant in an era of ‘libéralisme triomphant et […] évolution technologique’ (p. 8), and to show the continued vibrancy of Aragon studies, a vibrancy demonstrated by the balance between articles not only by long-established Aragon scholars but also by the work of younger researchers. The book is divided into five sections. The first focuses on ‘Réception internationale’, with a chapter on a Japanese reading of La Semaine sainte and one on the links between Aragon and Congolese writer Henri Lopes. The second section contains an interesting look at the place held by Aragon within French educational curricula. Patricia Principalli’s chapter focuses on Aragon’s status as classique within the primary sector, while Josette Pintueles identifies ideological factors at play in the restrictive selection of texts studied at lycée level, and concludes that the intervention of university-level research is necessary to ensure that Aragon’s work is better represented in the baccalauréat syllabus. Marjolaine Vallin’s chapter on the uses of Aragon texts in the teaching of French as a foreign language also demonstrates a preference for the politically mainstream in the use of his Resistance writings. The third section includes chapters highlighting Aragon as a poly-math in his work as translator, journalist, and editor. The largest section focuses on ‘Aragon et l’histoire’, with chapters by Marie-France Boireau, Daniel Bougnoux, Mireille Hilsum, Reynald Lahanque, and Maryse Vassevière on aspects both of the novels of the more politically oriented Monde réel cycle and Aragon’s later novels. The final, brief section is devoted to matters of intertextuality, with chapters on the influence of Rimbaud in the early works and of André Masson in Aragon’s final poetic work. As is usually the case with books in this series, the volume contains a final section foregrounding hitherto unpublished texts and supporting commentary. In this case, the inédits comprise letters written in 1918 and 1919 by Aragon to a school friend, Robert Alexandre. The volume as a whole is ample testimony to the fact that, ‘trente ans après’, Aragon studies continue to flourish.

Angela Kimyongür
University of Hull
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