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the modern era. The dismantling will turn into one of modernity’s central themes and will culminate in the 1960s and 1970s when, as Vincent Descombes has recently observed, a certain consensus is reached in the matter of the subject’s disintegration leaving it thoroughly “divisé, fragmenté, opaque et inconscient” (211). There is no getting rid of the subject, however, for a very simple reason pointed out by Florian Pennanech: “Chassez le sujet par la porte, il revient par la fenêtre” (214). Looking back at the heyday of structuralist theorizing, it now seems evident that all talk of the subject’s or the author’s demise was clearly premature. We are also better able to appreciate today the force of the argument directed at the proponents of a formalist or structuralist critical theory: simply put, “pas de structure sans une conscience structurante” (215). Of course, the nature of the subject may well change in the process of “desubjectification” and the subject’s agency may find itself transferred, for example, from an authorial to a textual consciousness. What such a perspective provides is a renewed appreciation for the role literature plays in elaborating different modes of self-expression. “Les textes littéraires ne sont pas l’écho direct de l’histoire des idées et des concepts,” the editors remind us: “Ils déploient une fable singulière où l’historicité des notions se voit elle-même transform ée, déplacée, condensée. Il y a des fables du moi” (18). The self, as a result, has been turned into the plot of the story or “mis en intrigue” in these fables, as the editors explain, using a concept made famous by Paul Ricœur. In order to make the variety of approaches and issues more manageable, the editors have divided the volume in three sections. Part one, entitled “Scènes du moi,” examines the issue of identity in terms of its historical context in such authors as Corneille, Diderot, Rousseau, and Benjamin Constant. Part two, “Sciences du moi,” looks at theoretical treatments of the self from Feuerbach to Freud. The last section, “Moi de papier,” illustrates applications of a “mise en intrigue” strategy by authors that include René Crevel and Henri Michaux as well as one of the foremost practitioners of “desubjectification,” Roland Barthes. According to Pennanech, the writing of the inimitable Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes provides a perfect illustration of a “conception du sujet, à la croisée de Lacan et Derrida, comme un vide qui se remplit en se dispersant dans la page” (223). All in all, the present volume offers a whole range of stimulating and informative discussions on the topic of the self reminding us that this issue is nowhere near to having been exhausted. Ohio State University Karlis Racevskis BLONDEAU, PHILIPPE, éd. Pierre et Ilse Garnier: la poésie au carrefour des langues. Arras: Artois PU, 2010. ISBN 978-2-84832-116-5. Pp. 236. 20 a. Celebrating Pierre Garnier’s eightieth birthday in 2008, the Université de Picardie-Jules Verne organized a colloquium honoring the author and his wife and collaborator Ilse Garnier. This volume presents twenty-one papers from that event, discussing Pierre’s biography, the works he and Ilse produced together, his writings in Picard, his linear poetry, and especially his foundational role for Spatialism, the literary movement he created in 1963. The postwar decades in France saw literary and artistic efforts to restructure culture and its most important artifact, the written and spoken language. Unlike the nihilism of Dada, the creations of the newer generation in visual and sound poetry were not destructive or despairing, Reviews 745 but sought to build something new and positive; Garnier’s Spatialism distinguished itself with supranational intentions. The six essays in the opening chapter, “Langue poétique, langue maternelle ,” comment on Garnier’s poetic apprenticeship and his efforts to revive literature in Picard, helping to save the language from oblivion. In 1966, Garnier served as literary editor for Eklitra, a new journal devoted to Picard; thence and into the twenty-first century, he discusses Picard and composes even Spatialist poetry in it. The next section, “Pierre et Ilse Garnier: œuvres croisées...

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