Michel Tournier and the Metaphor of Fiction (review)

David Platten's well-written Michel Tournier and the Metaphor of Fiction has much to recommend it. Starting with a discussion of a number of contemporary theories of metaphor, as well as the ways a knowledge of metaphor clarifies Tournier's intentions, Platten then offers sophisticated readings of all the novelist's major texts, right up to the most recent, Éléazar ou La Source et le buisson (1996). He also includes analyses of a number of the shorter texts. As fine as these treatments are, what adds a special and very appreciated quality to this study is Platten's desire to "make a modest contribution to current thinking about the role of literature in today's society"(3).

Since the heyday of the nouveau roman, critics and some influential novelists have tended to view the literary text as a self-referential unit, one that has at best a tangential relationship to the world outside the book. As Platten notes in his final pages the enthusiasm for this approach is beginning to wane, at least among creative writers, and Platten's own efforts constitute a more than modest contribution to the reintegration of literature and life. Certainly, in Michel Tournier, an artiste-provocateur ever-anxious to reach a broad audience and engage with the historical and moral issues of the twentieth century, he has an excellent subject through which to make his point.

Although Platten discusses a variety of metaphor theorists, it is not surprising that he is most drawn to Paul Ricœur whose "gallant refusal to abandon the notion of a non-textual reality afforded him pariah status"(26) during the 1960s and 1970s when poststructuralism was at its height. Drawing from Ricœur and others, Platten maintains that the "metaphorical substitute for the literary referent . . . is plausible," and "that it should be taken as some kind of truth or spur to action" (13). Metaphor for Platten, "seeks to change perspective on things"(14); it is not primarily a fact of language, but a means of cognition, "a cognitive process which is relayed through the imagination" (15). Platten credits Ricœur with placing the source of metaphor in the imagination (22), and concurs with the French philosopher's belief that metaphorical reference has "the capacity to provide new cognitive insight on the world outside the text"(25).

A brief glance at Platten's treatment of Tournier's most controversial novel, Le Roi des aulnes, will illustrate some of the values of his approach. From the outset Platten insists that the portrayal of Nazism is the central concern, a Nazism that certainly has historical roots, but which is, for Tournier, a psychological potential in all human beings. Abel Tiffauges, the main character, sees the world as highly symbolic, filled with vast but unclear meanings, and thus these "pure signs," the initial stage of the metaphor so to speak, remain devoid of specific content until the metaphorical process is completed through the intervention of a historical event which supplies both clarity and content. Thus Tiffauges's Écrits sinistres are portentous but vague until their meaning is supplied through their correspondence with "the powerful essentialist rhetoric disseminated . . . by Goebbels's propaganda machine"(87). In a similar fashion, Tiffauges's fantasy about a dreamland he calls "Canada" is exploded when a Jewish child explains the meaning the term had in Auschwitz, the treasure trove where the Nazis hoarded the gold and other values they extracted from their victims. Of course other critics have discussed such ideas previous to Platten, but his contribution is to demonstrate how Tiffauges's thought processes, which begin with vast and empty musings, yet end with an often sudden grasp of historical reality, reflect the structure of metaphors whose completion is at times long-delayed.

Platten includes in his study a discussion of Tournier's interest in writing primarily for children. This has puzzled many critics, and despite...