Naturalisme et excès visuels: pantomime, parodie, image, fête (Mélanges en l'honneur de David Baguley) (review)

The ten-page bibliography of works by David Baguley towards the opening of this volume testifies to the invaluable contribution this scholar has made to studies of Naturalism. It is in the spirit of such tireless and innovative thinking that this collection of essays was written, taking the notion of excess as a telling interpretive strategy with which to broaden potential areas of research on Naturalism and its influences, both in a historical and contemporary context. A mindful yet heartfelt preface from the Zola pioneer Henri Mitterand very much sets the tone for 'une débauche d'intelligence' (p. ix) that centres on a sequence of playful concepts, the four of which emerge both visually and textually from the idea of excess. These are explored in corresponding sections by nearly a dozen contributors from the UK, France and Canada. It is not the least strength of this volume that their enthusiasm for the subject is always evident, emphasising a fittingly celebratory approach throughout. That is not to suggest, however, that the rigours of scholarship have been abandoned in the individual chapters. Referencing is clear and meticulous, the arguments imaginative and persuasive, whilst the material is stimulating enough for experts of Naturalist writing without being inaccessible to non-specialists. Underlying questions of disruptive yet empowering excess, and its opposite in the form of a conspicuous and disorderly deficiency, are posed as a means of further understanding the aesthetics and thematics of this significant turn in literary and visual culture. Although Zola unsurprisingly dominates the proceedings here, the range of his works is stimulating nonetheless (with especially engaging takes by Edward Welch and Hannah Thompson on the writer's relations to photography and maternity respectively), whilst Maupassant, Jean Renoir and the New French Extremist filmmaker Bruno Dumont also receive attention. The inclusion of images in Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze's discussion of Nana (both the Zola novel and the Renoir film) and Anna Gural-Migdal's analysis of Dumont's Twenty-Nine Palms is a welcome feature for a volume of this kind, which proves a worthy investment when illustrating the arguments of each. Given the strength of the material at hand, it is curious therefore that the editors provide a rather brief introduction with only a swift sketch of the contributions made. Although they make no claim to any exhaustive approach and state a preference for a more suggestive logic, it is still regrettable that a more expansive framework of interpretation is not laid out in the introduction. No theoretical exploration of the title's themes is offered here, whilst critical contexts such as Bakhtin's carnivalesque and the Theatre of the Absurd, which could have complemented or productively complicated some of the ideas on display in this collection, are passed by. Nonetheless, this remains a thought-provoking and rewarding volume overall, and one which serves as a fitting tribute to an esteemed colleague in our field.