Silences du roman: Balzac et le romanesque contemporain (review)

In this bold and refreshingly un-academic essay, Aline Mura asks the simple question: 'Que reste-t-il de Balzac dans la littérature contemporaine?'. The value of her answer derives from a scrupulous reformulation of that question within an epistemological framework that bears scant resemblance to traditional literary history and depends still less on chronology. The subtlety of her none the less emphatic study stems from its recognition that the rediscovery of the machinery of the romanesque by some of the most original novelists writing in France today bears no resemblance to an act of pastiche or to the ossified practice that certain nouveaux romanciers made their all too easy target. It depends, likewise, on a view of Balzac's 'modernity' that Mura's fellow specialists may feel is no longer in need of militant propagation, but which doubtless retains an important corrective function in milieux where, in spite of the efforts of writers such as Pierre Michon, Robbe-Grillet's view of Balzac continues to hold sway. Her discussion thus assumes 'l'écriture balzacienne' to be characterized by fragmentation, metatextuality and dialogism, though in respect of its specific arguments it proves consistently arresting. Any risk that the continuities she identifies between Balzac's experience of the romanesque and that of the impressive array of modern writers she brings into play (des Forêts's Le Bavard, La Chute, Aragon's Blanche ou l'oubli, the novels of Marguerite Duras, but, more especially, the work of Quignard, Millet, Oster and Juliet) will dissolve into a morass of generalization is obviated by her adoption of silence as a hermeneutic key. The numerous works of fiction adduced are revealed to constitute a rich and diverse reflection on silence (seen not as an absence of language but as another form of language) within the actual activity of writing. If Genette provides her with basic tools and an analytical rigour to match her own formidable powers of analysis, Mura's discussion is permeated by Blanchot, to the extent that her chosen writers' stance in the face of silence is viewed in terms of a heroism analogous to that attributed by Blanchot to Mallarmé. The eschewal of a chronological approach leads to her essay assuming the form of a series of concentric circles that succeed admirably in deepening our understanding, while none the less incorporating a certain amount of expendable repetition. Although it would be ungrateful to regret the absence of Proust, or to wish that the analysis of Beckett (via Juliet) went deeper, Mura's claim that bavards are strangely absent from the Comédie humaine is, itself, strange. The volume is marred by some glaring misprints and might, usefully, have contained both an index and a bibliography listing all the studies previously mentioned. These are, however, but small blemishes alongside its many insights, which are conveyed with an enviable talent for lapidary formulations. In its essentials, Mura's study constitutes an exemplary mode of access to the contemporary French novel and may, more humbly, serve as a convenient compendium of references to works with much to offer the student in search of a dissertation subject.