Usines en textes, écritures au travail: témoigner du travail au tournant du XXIe siècle by Corinne Grenouillet (review)

Reviews 257 discussion of“construction”is tempered with references to inspiration and rumination. The author concludes with the hope that writing, however complex as creative practice , will continue on a path to more open,engaging dialogue rather than mystification. A bit uneven in its presentation (e.g., the long analyses of writing manuals) and slightly confusing in its framing (the title seems to suggest an examination of the novel of creation) this study is nevertheless a provocative reflection on writing as occupation. Lawrence University (WI) Eilene Hoft-March Grenouillet, Corinne. Usines en textes, écritures au travail: témoigner du travail au tournant du XXIe siècle. Paris: Garnier, 2014. ISBN 978-2-8124-3185-2. Pp. 261. 26 a. Grenouillet offers a literary analysis of recent writing that relates the experiences of workers in France confronted with the decline of traditional manufacturing, the rise of service industries, and the precariousness of low-wage employment. By listening to the voices of workers expressed in literary form, she seeks to determine the extent to which these texts are literary and the effectiveness of literature as a means of communicating workers’ concerns. Grenouillet connects Henry Poulaille’s idea of proletarian literature in the 1930s to current texts resulting from workshops on creative writing and theater, stenographic recording of oral testimonies, and blogs. She identifies a number of traditional themes in worker literature (boredom, strikes, accidents, fatigue, slacking, wistfulness) and newer themes reflecting the impact from downsizing,automation, and globalization (increased competition,temporary employment , declining workforce, betrayal by politicians, dilapidated factories, economic insecurity). Many of the texts she studies follow structures based largely on verbatim testimonies and journalistic documentaries that are not necessarily literary in nature. Other structures include editorializing along (or resistance to) established political rhetoric and anecdotal “tribulations” of serial employment that lead to comical situations of awkward human relations. Grenouillet raises the examples of Robert Piccamiglio (Chroniques des années d’usine, 1999) and Thierry Metz (Le journal d’un manœuvre, 1990) as two recent writers who achieve artistic merit through reflection and critical use of language. Grenouillet does an admirable job of assembling a corpus of texts that document the experiences of workers today and of exploring the extent to which one can submit the corpus to literary analysis. She struggles, however, with establishing criteria for determining the authenticity of worker literature. It is difficult to compare and evaluate texts written by workers with those written by professional writers, and this is a question that goes back at least as far as Poulaille who argued that only texts written by workers can authentically speak for workers. By insisting that a text’s authenticity must, in the end, be determined by the reader who can verify the sources used by the writer, Grenouillet initially argues that the criteria for authenticity are outside the text (84). Toward the end of the book, however, she reflects on the question of who is responsible for testimonies of workers’ conditions: the one who asks questions or the one who is questioned (227)? According to Jean-Paul Goux (Mémoires de l’enclave, 1986), the professional writer chooses“good”witnesses in order to reclaim fading memories, but for François Bon (Daewoo, 2004) the professional writer tries to fuse with workers and be their voice. Grenouillet recognizes the difficulty in evaluating testimonies written by workers indifferent to literary concerns and testimonies written by professional writers whose literary concerns may not align with workers’ concerns. She seeks to delineate the difference between understanding intellectually the condition of workers today and reading testimonies (including fiction) that allow readers to experience this condition imaginatively or poetically. This delineation is elusive. Hartwick College (NY) Mark Wolff Jauer, Annick, et Karine Germoni, éd. La pensée ininterrompue du Mexique dans l’œuvre de Le Clézio. Aix-en-Provence: PU de Provence, 2014. ISBN 978-28-5399949 -6. Pp. 126. 9 a. This volume of essays with an editors’ introduction contributes significantly to studies of Le Clézio’s literary corpus and bridges a gap regarding the ubiquitous Mexican subtext with its contrasting indigenous and modern cultures. The title resonates as a play on Le Clézio’s essay Le...