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  • Balzac et la crise des identités
  • Hollie Markland Harder
Cullman, Emmanuelle, José-Luis Diaz, and Boris Lyon-Caen, , eds. Balzac et la crise des identités. Groupe international de recherches balzaciennes. Collection Balzac. Paris: Christian Pirot, 2005. Pp. 197. ISBN 2-86808-228.

Drawn from contributions to a two-year seminar at Paris VII on "Balzac et la (re)construction (sociale et discursive) des identités" (10), these essays pursue the unorthodox notion that the structure and evolution of La Comédie humaine depend on the instability of its characters' social identities rather than on the depiction of set social types. In his opening reflections that serve to introduce the collection, José-Luis [End Page 677] Diaz establishes "la loi constante du personnage balzacien," which consists of a fundamental separation between a character's initial appearance, his or her "fond véritable" (20), and the role he or she plays in a given novel. Detailed accounts of the numerous personalities that exist "pour une même personne" (20) illustrate the phenomenon of "identités en mutation et ou/en crise [. . .] sur fond de transformation sociale" (22) that forms the basis for this volume.

The five articles in the first part, "Problématiques," deal with general situations in La Comédie humaine where identity is called into question. In his well argued analysis, Jacques-David Ebguy describes Balzac's efforts to create a new kind of identity for his characters by casting them simultaneously as "une figure exemplaire et une singularité" (28). Because Balzac never reveals "la totalité" (39) of any character, each one maintains an untapped "réserve de sens" (40) for possible use in subsequent novels. Isabelle Michelot examines the overlooked world of les emplois, or character actors, who provide the backdrop in many of Balzac's works, and Christèle Couleau studies the extent to which les personnages génériques lend coherence and continuity to La Comédie humaine. The perceptions of Balzac's political leanings at the time of his death are taken up by Patricia Baudoin, who underscores the diversity of opinions attributed to the author of La Comédie humaine and concludes that uncovering his "true" political beliefs is impossible. For his part, Boris Lyon-Caen emphasizes the ways in which "[s]ingularité, connexion et communauté" (107) contribute to the evolution of Balzacian characters.

The second part, "Figures," focuses on specific, canonical character types in Balzac's work. Whereas some of the contributions – such as Cécile Stawinski's analysis of les portiers and Marie-Ève Thérenty's profile of les journalistes – underscore the ways in which these figures are constructed, others detail Balzac's process of deconstructing a stereotype in order to reconfigure the personnage to fit the needs of his novels. Of particular interest are Christine Marcandier's examination of Balzacian criminals, Alexandre Péraud's study of debtors, and the portrait of la femme de province drawn by Véronique Bui. In his treatment of "la femme 'inspiratrice'" (177), Dany Kopoev reveals that she inevitably ends up "de manière désastreuse sinon tragique, ou simplement dans la dérision" (181), a fate that may be interpreted, he suggests (without elaborating), in a way that is not "univoque, misogyne et pontifiant" (186). Finally, Claire Barel-Moisan's effort to identify the reader "à qui La Comédie humaine cherche à s'adresser" (189) uncovers "une nouvelle figure de lecteur, actif et indépendant, qui doit jouer un rôle décisif d'herméneute pour permettre le fonctionnement de la fiction" (195).

These essays demonstrate how, by transposing to the first half of the nineteenth century our contemporary fascination with issues of identity, we can better understand Balzac's marvelously complex portrait of an era. Apart from a rather prominent misquotation in the opening chapter (14) from Balzac's preface to Illusions perdues, the collection is well edited. It should prove to be enlightening for scholars well versed in the intrigues of La Comédie humaine as well as accessible and informative for students who are just beginning their discovery of Balzac's "société en crise" (14).

Hollie Markland Harder
Brandeis University

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