Enduring Resistance: Cultural Theory after Derrida/La résistance persévère: la théorie de la culture (d')après Derrida ed. by Sjef Houppermans, et al (review)

his own work. Although the article aptly presents the use of sensory memory, the inclusion of the language of flowers, and the exploration of the finite and infinite in Andrade’s poetry, these themes were not unique to Proust’s writing, and it would be difficult to infer any concrete relationship between the work of the two authors based solely on these examples. Manet von Montfrans explores a possible relation between Proust and Perec in their depictions of Venice. The focus is on Perec’s embroidering on Roussel’s biography by the invention of a fictional trip to Venice, in which Perec described, in a coded manner, his own story. The essay, which concentrates mainly on Perec with very little reference to Proust, evinces the thesis that this is yet another instance of how Perec, while using similar themes as Proust, takes them in a different direction. On the other hand, Emily Eells’s historical investigation of the lack of influence of Wilde’s work on Proust deftly cuts through the myths that have been propagated about their relationship and carefully maps out the sparse examples that might suggest that Proust was familiar with Wilde’s “The Decay of Lying” as well as the introduction to The Picture of Dorian Gray. Franc Schuerewegen’s tour de force linking Charlus’s memory to the missing memories needed to create the book winds through a plethora of seemingly unrelated and yet cleverly linked themes: the poster Charlus observed in Balbec and later recalls on the Champs- Élysées, Liebig concentrated beef extract, Wagner and the use of Parsifal as an advertising strategy, Parsifal’s memory. Sjef Houppermans rounds off the collection with an engaging analysis of how the genre of the graphic novel is used to visually mimic the superimposition of Proust’s thematic style in the new edition of Heuet’s Un amour de Swann 2. Indiana University Juliette Dade HOUPPERMANS, SJEF, RICO SNELLER, and PETER VAN ZILFHOUT, eds. Enduring Resistance: Cultural Theory after Derrida/La résistance persévère: la théorie de la culture (d’)après Derrida. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010. ISBN 90-420-3030-5. Pp. 346. $91. This bilingual collection of essays seeks to explore not only the ways Jacques Derrida’s work has been exploited by “cultural theory” but also—and especially— “la résistance à une telle exploitation qui est inhérente à sa pensée” (16). Such a goal is extremely promising, especially at a time when, proliferating references to it notwithstanding, Derrida’s texts appear to be as little read as ever. For if it is a commonplace today for critical discourses to establish their theoretical bona fides through reference to Derrida’s work, too often these discourses appear unaware of the ways his text resists what it is being made to say. Consequently, they often end up inscribing themselves all too quickly in positions that Derrida went to great lengths to “deconstruct.” The fact, then, that Derrida continues to be a pierre de touche for so many different discourses is by no means an indication that his legacy is alive and kicking; indeed, it may well be part of the process of burying it. Given the initial promise of the volume, one is disappointed to find so many entries symptomatic of the very problem it purports to address. Numerous essays exemplify an almost comical resistance to actually reading Derrida. In “Traces of Nihilism,” for example, Peter van Zilfhout proposes to “take a look at Derrida’s lecture “La différance” prior to “implement[ing] his logic of traces in a case study” 360 FRENCH REVIEW 85.2 (99). Yet when van Zilfhout finally gets to his discussion of “La différance” after many a detour, it is only to tell us that, although “an extensive reading of the lecture by Derrida is interesting [...], for the moment it is sufficient to point to the consequence embodied in this lecture” (111). So much for reading it. One pays a price, however, for such a non-reading. When van Zilfhout claims that “poetry is, read with eyes and ears influenced by Derrida, the one place where memory and nothingness can be reconciled” (112—my emphasis), he...