L'Islam syncrétique de Driss Chraïbi

L'Esprit Créateur was "perceived as a manner of affirming individual rights over ideological totalitarianism" (117). In other words, "ethics" intervenes strategically to destabilize the opposition esthetics/politics. As Champagne's monograph reminds us, however, we are dealing with the "ethics" of an ironist. Marx-Scouras, on the other hand, takes the responsibilities of the intellectual seriously. Her critical voice, audible in the opening chapters, comes through loud and clear in the concluding ones. In between, in the exposition of theory, she relies heavily on authoritative citations and sometimes too easily adopts theoretical formulas which are then just as easily dropped. Although she gives a competent (and at times illuminating) exposition of theoretical issues, she does not integrate this material into her larger argument. A certain detachment from the imperatives of theory enables an independent critical perspective. On the other hand, by not taking the theoretical (re)engagement of Tel Quel seriously she risks losing sight of important features of its disengagement . Another recent study, The Time of Theory by Patrick French, has argued that Tel Quel theory emerged from the literary practice of Sollers and his fellow artists. Marx-Scouras does not emphasize the bearing that theory, and the political engagement associated with it, has on the story of literary commitment. Nor does she nuance or problematize the notion of engagement which frames her argument (see on this point Anna Boschetti, Sartre et "Les Temps Modernes," and my Literary Polemics). The contextualization of the review in relation to the cultural politics of the left is important and forcefully executed. This is a serious study, strong on research, argument and conviction. When, in the final pages, however, the author attributes the demise of Tel Quel to the recent collapse of Marxism-Communism and a correlative evaporation of the ideology of engagement, affirming that "literature is, in a sense, at peace again. It hardly needs to be defended" (217), she oversimplifies her own case. Neglecting the theoretical distinction between "writing" and "literature ," she implies that, yes, it was all about a return to literature after all. "You know what profoundly reactionary ideology ... 'literature' is the active symptom of in our society," Sollers wrote in "Ecriture et Revolution" in 1968, "... this symptom refers us to the whole of bourgeois ideology." Is Sollers's "ethics" of the singular a reaffirmation of bourgeois individualism? Or of avant-garde contestation? And just what is the relation between the two? We need a commitment on this point and neither of these studies is quite prepared to make it fully. Suzanne Guerlac Emory University Anthère Nzabatsinda. Normes linguistiques et écriture africaine chez Ousmane Sembène. Toronto: Éditions du Gref, Collection Theoria No. 7, 1996. Pp. 211. Depuis que la critique littéraire a pris naissance pour accompagner la jeune littérature africaine d'expression française, beaucoup de travaux traitant de la question linguistique ont, par la même occasion, vu le jour. Ce faisant, le débat portant sur l'utilisation de la langue française par l'écrivain africain n'est pas nouveau. La nouveauté réside plutôt dans l'effort de dépassement de l'affrontement irrémédiable et stérile frisant le mythe de Sisyphe entre, d'un côté, Ie français langue du colonisateur et, de l'autre, les langues africaines signes de culture, d'authenticité et d'africanité. L' ouvrage d'A. Nzabatsinda doit être appréhendé sous l'optique qui consiste à mettre sur pied de nouvelles grilles de lecture du roman africain en vue, non seulement de se défaire de la camisole de force linguistique et langagière, mais, surtout, de faire apparaître tout un éventail de richesses, de créativité et d'esthétique littéraire, lesquelles sont mieux à même de dévoiler à leur tour les facettes multiples de ce même roman africain. L'auteur distingue tour à tour la norme linguistique (incluant la sociolinguistique) imposée et sanctionnée par des institutions comme l'état et l'école, l'idéologisation du français et l'africanisation de ce demier, et, dans Ia même foulée, l'inscription de la modernité et de la tradition à l'intérieur du...