Claude Simon: situations ed. by Paul Dirkx and Pascal Mougin (review)

This composite volume brings together eleven essays whose aim, as stated by the editors in the Introduction, is to fill in a gap in existing scholarship on Claude Simon by focusing on the insufficiently addressed relationship between Simon's texts and the diverse cultural, social, political, and literary contexts in which they emerged. The link between text and context is not viewed in antithetical terms but rather as a symbiosis, since one of the goals of this collection is to show how various contextual aspects are worked within the fabric of Simon's œuvre. The volume is divided into four parts, each revolving around a different aspect of the text-context relationship: 'Les Ambitions accessibles', 'Positionnements', 'La Question sociale et politique', 'L'Écrivain dans son œuvre'. In the opening essay Jean-Yves Laurichesse moves beyond the reductionist distinction between Paris and the provinces and argues in favour of a notable connection between Simon and his provincial heritage, whose artistic influences are discernible throughout Simon's novels. Pascal Mougin retraces some of Simon's aesthetic perspectives back to his intricate relationship with his parents' problematic marriage (viewed as a misalliance), and to his efforts to negotiate his own stance vis-à-vis the distinct maternal and paternal legacies. In Simon's complex yet tense relationship with his first (and insistently repudiated) novel Le Tricheur, Marie-Odile André identifies some of the latent stakes of his nascent literary career. Katerine Gosselin explores Simon's double positioning in relation to the traditional novel, shaped on the one hand by Simon's association with the nouveau roman, and on the other hand by his adherence to a tradition of artistic authenticity. Michel Bertrand richly details the correspondence between Claude Simon and Jean Dubuffet, bringing to light significant points of aesthetic confluence. In her essay, Cécile Yapaudjian-Labat considers the multiple and often ambiguous values that the concept of 'humanism' acquires in Simon's works, in light of the historical conflicts of the twentieth century and of the way cultural history re-evaluates humanistic tradition in the wake of these clashes. Using a lexicometric analysis, Patrick Rebollar evinces new insights into Simonian political discourse. Through an examination of the topos of the servant, Nathalie Piégay-Gros demonstrates how Simon deviates from literary tradition by dehistoricizing the figure of the servant through the introduction of a mythical dimension. Drawing on Anthony Cheal Pugh's previous studies on the historical referent, Michèle Touret analyses the various functions of the historical document in Simon's fiction. Highlighting the vital place of the referent for Simon, Yona Hanhart-Marmor discusses the rift between Simon and two distinct camps: certain proponents of the nouveau roman who reject the referent altogether, and readers who take the referent at its face value. Paul Dirkx emphasizes the role of the body (especially the writing body) in Simon, which extends beyond the thematic realm and acts as a crucial connector between the (literary) world and the text. Through the varied perspectives it introduces, this wide-ranging collection is a fruitful, and indeed welcome, addition to Simon studies.