Henri Michaux: interventions poétiques d'un homme en '-mane' par Monica Tilea (review)

This systematic study of Henri Michaux's creative output up to 1945 began life as a PhD thesis, defended at the University of Craiova, Romania, in 2006. It was then published as a book by the press of the same university before taking its present form. Monica Tilea engages in an interdisciplinary examination of the creative act in Michaux's work through the comparison of what she names 'le poiein du pictural' and 'le poiein du scriptural' (p. 12 et passim). The book begins with the well-established affirmation about the difficulty of defining Michaux, but does not fall into the trap of trying to do so. It is divided into three parts: 'Le Travail du nocturnal' (his journey into the outer world), 'Le Travail nocturne' (his exploration of the inner world via dreams and daydreams), and 'Le Travail diurne' (his preference for painting as an expressive form); and presents close readings of several well-known texts by Michaux including Ecuador, La Nuit remue, Façons d'endormi, façons d'éveillé, La Ralentie, and Épreuves, exorcismes. Steeped in phenomenological thought, Tilea's book strives to show how everything is related in Michaux's work, be it the failure of actual journeys in Ecuador and the subsequent contemplation of the creative process in this 'journal de voyage'; the meteorological conditions of this journey (sea, fog) and Michaux's later experimentation with watercolour; or the historical events that gave rise to combative texts, such as 'Immense voix', which Tilea successfully interprets as containing the germs of Michaux's later visual output. Each chapter is couched in Michaux's own terminology and the argument proceeds using language familiar to any Michaux reader: 'interventions', 'déplacements', 'gestes', 'fatigue', and 'cri', to name but a few. This is a rigorous and well-structured exploration of Michaux's work and there is no doubt that it is an important contribution to the field. Its author understands and knows Michaux's creative output very well. She is also familiar with the secondary material (up to 2005) on the poet-artist, and builds on it to construct an insightful and convincing argument. The inclusion of theoretical works by Romanian authors (for example, Marius Ghica and Irina Mavrodin) provides an innovative critical angle. The lack of engagement with more recent Michaux scholarship is disappointing, however. Statements such as 'Henri Michaux aété un solitaire qui s'est tenu en marge de tous lesévénements de son temps' (p. 156) could have been avoided if the more sociological approach by David Vrydaghs had been considered (Michaux l'insaisissable: socioanalyse d'une entrée en littérature (Geneva: Droz, 2008)). More care with proofreading would have improved the text: for example, footnote 349 also appears in the body of the text on p. 164. Tilea is particularly strong when discussing Paul Klee's influence on Michaux through the lens of 'Aventures de lignes', although here some of the terminology used (in particular, 'la force créatrice', p. 129) could have benefited from more careful analysis. The author's final assertion that this line of enquiry should be extended to Michaux's later production is very welcome, provided the above caveats are taken into account.