L’atelier noir by Annie Ernaux (review)

underscores the fanciful perception of elements that had suddenly given African arts an aesthetic status in the West, thanks to their association with modern themes of “dehumanization ,”“alienation,”and“authenticity.”He deftly leads the reader to“l’analyse ethnoesthétique,” which examines the question of beauty and utility through Kant, Senghor, Mauss, and Delange. Diop ends the second part on Eurocentric aesthetics with an inquiry into the formalist approach by connecting Baumgarten, Hume, and Hegel to Alassane Ndaw, Roger Somé, and Iba Ndiaye Diadji. The third section of the text investigates African aesthetic theories by Senghor, Mveng, and Bidima. Each of the three chapters in this final unit treats the standard themes of “Négritude,”“crossings,” “marginalization,”and“globalization,”with the goal of developing a unified aesthetic theory. While Diop frequently returns to the past, he just as often looks to the contemporary arts scene within and outside the continent. This study speaks with clarity on a subject whose sources are complex and varied.As each chapter peels away layers of culturally biased criticism, the natural links between the ancient-traditionalcontemporary periods do indeed emerge. Not only does Diop’s study serve as an excellent introduction to African plastic arts, it provides insight into all its arts traditions. Mount St. Mary’s University (MD) Marco D. Roman Ernaux,Annie. L’atelier noir. Paris: Busclats, 2011. ISBN 978-2-36166-009-3. Pp. 203. 15 a. Approached by the editors of a publishing house that invites established authors to provide something“en marge de leur œuvre,”perhaps even a glimpse into“un coin de leur jardin secret,” Ernaux offered her writing journal, a record of “les doutes, les hésitations, les recherches vaines, les pistes abandonnées, tout ce travail de taupe creusant d’interminables galeries, qui prélude à l’écriture de mes livres” (7). As she would later explain, the title conveys her sense of the journal as “ma pièce noire. J’ai vraiment l’impression que j’y suis enfermée et que je cherche avec ténacité, sans relâche,la sortie”(FloriLettres 128 ). Rather than a writing journal, as one might normally think of the term, this is a“journal d’avant-écriture, un journal de fouilles, qui m’accompagne encore un peu en début de rédaction,mais que j’abandonne aussitôt que je suis happée par la certitude d’aller jusqu’au bout du texte entrepris”(9). Hence the irregular rhythm of notations, with gaps of months or even years. While there is evidence of preliminary reflection of one sort or another for most of her books, certain projects hinted at in the journal have never been brought to fruition. Of all of Ernaux’s published work, it is by far Les années that figures most prominently in L’atelier noir; indeed, the period of a quartercentury spanned by the journal (1982–2007) and the gradual, halting gestation of Les 216 FRENCH REVIEW 87.4 Reviews 217 années are essentially coterminous. As early as 1983 there are indications of a deepseated desire to produce something broader in scope than the sort of personal works (starting with La place) for which Ernaux would soon become well known, and what would eventually materialize as Les années is alluded to,at different junctures,as a“grand roman”(27), a“roman total”(45), an“[a]utobiographie objective”(70), or simply“le grand projet”(152).Beyond the incipient trace of particular works,the journal resonates with preoccupations to which Ernaux has given voice publicly over the years, notably her determined search for the right form for a given project, one that will capture the particular truth that she wishes to discover and convey: “une forme qui permette de penser l’impensé” (99), as she puts it characteristically at one point, or, even more succinctly, “la forme de la vérité” (102). Those readers already familiar with at least a substantial part of Ernaux’s oeuvre—certainly the most likely audience for L’atelier noir, given its intimate, often hermetic nature—will not be entirely surprised by the appearance of this journal, since she had previously mentioned its existence in various interviews. The decision...