In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Gérard Macé
  • Akane Kawakami
Gérard Macé. Textes réunis par Marc Blanchet et Jean-Yves Masson. (Revue des sciences humaines, 297). Villeneuve-d’Ascq: Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2010. x + 200 pp.

In spite of an impressive œuvre of over twenty books and ten translations, several volumes of photographs, and a clutch of prestigious prizes including the 2009 Grand Prix de la Poésie de l’Académie française, Gérard Macé is not a ‘popular’ writer. This may be partly due to the fact that his work is difficult to classify: it defies generic boundaries, moving seamlessly from scholarly analysis to autobiographical confidence, from translation to explication, from surrealistic prose poetry to the purest of French récits. The editors of the present collection of essays write that their volume is for ‘les lecteurs de plus en plus nombreux pour qui le nom de Gérard Macé est devenu un signe de ralliement encore un peu secret’ (p. 9). They are quick to emphasize, however, that the importance of his work in the landscape of French literature is un-contested, as evidenced by the increasing attention Macé’s work is receiving from French academics. To date, this is the fourth book of essays dedicated to Macé’s œuvre (the previous one appeared in Minard’s prestigious ‘Écritures contemporaines’ [End Page 126] series in 2008). Two of the contributors to this volume, Karine Gros and Laurent Demanze, have also authored monographs on Macé. The others, from Germany, Italy, the UK, and France, have between them covered a wide range of his works. Most of Macé’s areas of interest are represented: travel, anthropology, and ethnology (by Jean-Pierre Richard and Alexandre Gefen), Gérard Nerval (Agnès Castiglione and Laurent Demanze), and image and photography (Éric Dazzan, Wolfram Nitsch, and Marc Blanchet). Ridha Boulaâbi has contributed a chapter on Macé’s best-known book, Le Dernier des Égyptiens. These critics are all seasoned Macé readers, and their essays, clearly propelled by a desire to increase his readership, succeed in bringing out the most intriguing aspects of his œuvre: Dominique Rabaté’s essay on the miniature and Ann Jefferson’s on precious fabrics are particularly thought-provoking. Karine Gros’s essay is slightly too schematic, but this is because it is, in effect, a précis of her excellent monograph on Macé’s aesthetics. The essays, and three creative pieces written in homage to Macé by Olivier Remaud, Gérard Farasse, and Antonio Prete, are followed by an exhaustive bibliography, compiled by Karine Gros, of both Macé’s publications and critical literature on his work. It is, at the time of writing, already ‘out of date’: since this Septentrion volume appeared, Macé has published a collection of photographs, for the first time in colour, entitled La Couleur est un trompe-l’œil (2011). But it remains the most complete bibliography for Macé scholars, and the unrecorded publications only serve to remind us that Macé’s is ‘une œuvre qui [. . .] est en pleine évolution, et qui devrait continuer de surprendre, dans les annéesà venir’ (p. 9). The volume alerts us to the importance of Macé in contemporary French writing, a necessary reminder given that he is still, unaccountably, a relatively neglected figure in the anglophone academy.

Akane Kawakami
Birkbeck,University of London
...

pdf

Share