Approaches to Teaching Stendhal's The Red and the Black ed. by Dean de la Motte and Stirling Haig (review)

Beyond its overarching thematic argument, BuildingResembUnceoffers avaluable examination ofpivotal analogical images by Molinet and Lemaire. It also offers learned readings ofRabelais, even ifthis readerdid not always agreewith their conclusions. Inappropriate for the casual reader, this book is useful to advanced graduatestudents andestablished scholarsalikeforits clearlyarticulated arguments and exhaustive bibliography. All of Randall's readings are well-researched and thought provoking, both hallmarks ofa worthwhile academic study. ^ Dean de la Motte and Stirling Haig, eds. Approaches to Teaching Stendhal's The Red and the Black. (Approaches to Teaching World Literature, Joseph Gibaldi, series editor.) New York: The Modern Languages Association ofAmerica, 1999. 189p. Aleksandra Gruzinska Arizona State University Stendhal's 1830 French novel, The Redand the BUck, is the object of eighteen essays by experts in 19th-century French literature. Several represent comparative literature, literary criticism, history, and sociology. In Part One (3-8), the editors review editions and translations, courses and course designs, recommended readings, visual and multimedia aids. The problems specific to the novel are its length and complexity. American students may find the deeply imbedded class conflicts in the novel difficult to grasp without the help ofproven comprehension strategies. Part Two (9-173) contains five sections on "Contextualizing The Redand the BUck," "Strategies ofReading," "FormalApproaches," "Questions ofGenderand Class Identity" and finally "Technologyand Pedagogy."The discussion openswith concepts familiar to Stendhal specialists such as "the novel is a mirror being carried along rhe highway" and "politics in awork ofimagination is like a pistol shot in the middle ofa concert." Although the authors relyheavily on history/historicity , discursive truth, and historical verisimilitude (Smith Allen), they move progressively from history to sociology (Parkhurst Ferguson), and ultimately imbed the discussion within politics (Brooks). The first section closes with a romantic approach (Birkett) that stresses traits Stendhal admired in Romanticism: "subjectivism , individuality, energy, courage, imagination, the rejection ofsociety's vanity , the happiness ofreciprocal love, arid the nobilityofintegrity" (47). Thewomen protagonists in The Redand the BUck, Mme de Renal and Mathilde de la Môle, regain the importance attributed to them by Stendhal, but denied them by history and politics. The historical and political backgrounds, and essential dates, 112 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * SPRING 2000 center on the French Revolution of 1789, the Reign ofTerror, and the decapitation ofLouisXVI. Parkhurst Ferguson situates it in 1791, but others indicate 1793 as historically correct. These happenings and the Napoleonic cult announce the July Revolution of 1830 ofhistorical importance, but also important for understanding The Red and the BUck, which is subtitled "A Chronicle of 1830." The novel, as we learn, does not portray the July Revolution, but rather the events immediately preceding it. Thus a solid grasp ofhistory, society, and politics ofthe period is essential. "Strategies on Reading the Novel," depicts love and aphenomenon called "crystallization ," the effects ofimagination on Julien Sorel's pursuit ofemotional happiness , the influence ofRousseau. Savage Brossman emphasizes the role that appearances play in social functioning and their relationship to reality. The first chapters ofthe novel reveal "a societywhose power structures are built on money and perceived statuswithin a reactionarymonarchy supported by thechurch" (51). Day explores scenes of "reading and writing" and how they relate to the novel's "exemplarity as a mode ofliterary realism, its symbolic and psychological dimensions , its devices for plot development, ... its reception as a creative literary artifact " (57). In the section on "Formal Approaches," Prince's narratological treatment includes an impressive numberoftechnical terms. In the end, however, their proliferation (parataxis, syndectic, staccato, legato, narratorial intrusiveness, metanarrative, disnarrated, to cite a few) conveys a dispassionate tone. Ginsburg, on the other hand, explores the novel's plot and the "notion ofyielding a return." He discovers that Stendhal undermines the ideas ofan end-dominated plot and shows a tendency away from the plot which leads to a sense of"freedom" and a novel more fragmented in nature. Willis sets out in search oflabor saving devices while studying the depth and richness of The Redandthe BUck. He proposes exploring minor characters, such as Gerónimo, Mme Derville and the Duke de Chaulnes. This strategy allows for pointing out the symbolic value of reading, which no longer is a means to success but an end in itself. The novel also raises questions ofboundaries: "those...