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Reviewed by:
  • Théophile Gautier: Une écriture paradoxale de l’histoire by Martine Lavaud, and Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin, eds.
  • Anne E. Linton
Lavaud, Martine and Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin, eds. Théophile Gautier: Une écriture paradoxale de l’histoire. Bulletin de la Société Théophile Gautier, no. 34. Montpellier: Société Théophile Gautier, 2012. Pp. 302. isbn: 978-2353712946

Théophile Gautier: Une écriture paradoxale de l’histoire explores Gautier’s vexed relationship to history through a scholarly collection of essays penned by experts in the field. Although Gautier sought to distance himself from the historical pretentions of his literary contemporaries—the preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin, in particular, ridicules the kitsch trappings of medieval décor that had become all the rage in fiction—a number of Gautier’s writings are also deeply invested in either past historical moments or in his immediate present. In many of Gautier’s most well-remembered fantastic tales (“Le Pied de momie,” “Arria Marcella,” and “Une Nuit de Cléopâtre,” for example) antiquity serves as creative force for narrative, although their diminutive format also breaks with the historical novel and the totalizing ambitions of writers like Dumas. In contrast, several of Gautier’s other works, such as Tableaux de siège, seem, at first, to confront contemporary history head-on.

The fourteen essays comprising this collection explore Gautier’s paradoxical stance as both anti-historicist and still somehow archaeologist not only in his canonical writings, but also, and perhaps more valuably in terms of their contribution, in his lesser-known works and journalistic texts. In addition to offering an excellent introduction that details key elements of Gautier’s complex relationship to history, editors Martine Lavaud and Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin have expertly organized this issue of the Bulletin de la Société Théophile Gautier into four sections: Gautier critique: “le journaliste face à l’histoire,” “figures du passé,” “fictions,” and “contre-écritures de l’histoire.” While it would be impossible in a short review to do justice to fourteen sophisticated essays, I will endeavor to outline briefly the thesis of each.

The first section confronts Gautier’s under-studied corpus of journalistic writings in order to gain insight into his evolving thoughts on contemporary society. Marie-Ève Thérenty argues compellingly that Gautier’s career as a journalist was instrumental in shaping an original poetics of historical fiction in his literary career. Similarly, Olivier Bara analyses Gautier’s theatre criticism to reveal how he relies on an enduring concept of genius in order to critique prosaic contemporary events. Marie-Hélène Girard turns to Gautier’s art criticism, explaining that his ties to romanticism allowed him to appreciate those modern works able to revive the past through impeccable technique. In perhaps the most specialized essay, Cassandra Hamrick investigates Gautier’s critique of a contemporary technique popular in the plastic arts—a choice revealing his aesthetic allegiance to more enduring classical models.

Alain Vaillant opens the second section by positing a radical rupture between [End Page 305] representations of the past and present in Gautier’s fiction, which, Vaillant suggests, creates a space for art to venerate beauty as a specter of history. François Brunet traces the evolution of Gautier’s portrayal of the reign of Louis xiv, arguing that an initially critical conception of classicism as rigid and sterile gives way to a later reinterpretation of its legacy of greatness in baroque effervescence. Anne Geisler-Szmulewicz interrogates early avatars of the tyrant in Gautier’s fiction, who serve, she illustrates, as anecdotes to bourgeois mediocrity and hypocrisy. Drawing a parallel between the artist’s pursuit of transcendence above prosaic realities and the tyrant as a figure of the absolute, Geisler-Szmulewicz suggests that Gautier’s fascination for the tyrannical figure stems from his own meditations about art.

Essays in the third section focus on Gautier’s body of fiction as it relates to history. Sarah Mombert investigates Gautier’s frequent use of time travel, in fiction that often satirizes contemporary society through juxtaposition and a nonlinear sense of time. Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin argues instead that Gautier deconstructs the historical, political, and moral valence of key moments or locations during antiquity...

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