Table Of ContentModern French Identities 74 Modern French Identities
74
What does contemporary French poetry do to the subject? This book J Jérôme Game
é
r
examines the means and effects of the subject’s transmutation into ô
m
various processes of (de-)subjectivation by looking at the works of
e
four contemporary writers: Christian Prigent, Dominique Fourcade, G
a Poetic Becomings
Olivier Cadiot and Hubert Lucot. The author explores their work in m
the context of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy, building a critical appa- e
•
ratus – a ‘poetics of becoming’ – that informs close readings of poems P
o
and prose. Moving beyond established criteria of classical literary e Studies in Contemporary
t
criticism, the book both offers a comparative discussion of Deleuze’s i
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notions of literature and provides new insights into French writing, B French Literature
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addressing the political dimension of contemporary poetry from the c
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Jérôme Game is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Film Studies at m
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the American University of Paris and Associate Researcher at Université o
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Paris 8 and the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Lettres et Sciences Humaines. a
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After receiving his PhD in French from the University of Cambridge, y
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he spent two years as Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at r
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University College London. He is the editor of the volumes Porous n g
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Boundaries: Texts and Images in Twentieth-Century French Culture h n
(2007), Jacques Rancière: Politique de l’esthétique (2009), Images des L a
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corps/Corps des images au cinéma (2010) and Le Récit aujourd’hui: e
Art et littérature (2011). ra
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ISBN 978-3-03911-401-6
www.peterlang.com
Modern French Identities 74 Modern French Identities
74
What does contemporary French poetry do to the subject? This book J Jérôme Game
é
r
examines the means and effects of the subject’s transmutation into ô
m
various processes of (de-)subjectivation by looking at the works of
e
four contemporary writers: Christian Prigent, Dominique Fourcade, G
a Poetic Becomings
Olivier Cadiot and Hubert Lucot. The author explores their work in m
the context of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy, building a critical appa- e
•
ratus – a ‘poetics of becoming’ – that informs close readings of poems P
o
and prose. Moving beyond established criteria of classical literary e Studies in Contemporary
t
criticism, the book both offers a comparative discussion of Deleuze’s i
c
notions of literature and provides new insights into French writing, B French Literature
e
addressing the political dimension of contemporary poetry from the c
o
perspective of current theoretical radicalism. m
i
n
g
s
:
S
t
u
d
i
e
s
i
n
C
o
n
t
e
Jérôme Game is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Film Studies at m
p
the American University of Paris and Associate Researcher at Université o
r
Paris 8 and the Ecole Normale Supérieure-Lettres et Sciences Humaines. a
r
After receiving his PhD in French from the University of Cambridge, y
F
he spent two years as Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow at r
e
University College London. He is the editor of the volumes Porous n g
c
Boundaries: Texts and Images in Twentieth-Century French Culture h n
(2007), Jacques Rancière: Politique de l’esthétique (2009), Images des L a
i
t L
corps/Corps des images au cinéma (2010) and Le Récit aujourd’hui: e
Art et littérature (2011). ra
t r
u
r e
e t
e
P
www.peterlang.com
Poetic Becomings
Modern French Identities
Edited by Peter Collier
Volume 74
PEtEr Lang
Oxford l Bern l Berlin l Bruxelles l Frankfurt am Main l new York l Wien
Jérôme game
Poetic Becomings
Studies in Contemporary
French Literature
PEtEr Lang
Oxford l Bern l Berlin l Bruxelles l Frankfurt am Main l new York l Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the
Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
game, Jérôme.
Poetic becomings : studies in contemporary French literature / Jérôme
game.
p. cm. -- (Modern French identities ; v. 74)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
English and French.
ISBn 978-3-03911-401-6 (alk. paper)
1. French literature--20th century--History and criticism--theory, etc. 2.
Poetics. 3. Subjectivity in literature. 4. French literature--21st century--
History and criticism--theory, etc. I. title.
PQ305.g36 2011
840.9’00914--dc23
2011025544
ISSn 14229005 (Print edition)
ISBn 9783039114016 EISBN 9783035301755
© Peter Lang ag, International academic Publishers, Bern 2011
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
all rights reserved.
all parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
this applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in germany
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: A Poetics of Becoming 1
Chapter 1
Christian Prigent, or Life as Piercing 57
Chapter 2
Dominique Fourcade, or a Poetics of the Rhizome 107
Chapter 3
Olivier Cadiot, or the Stuttering Self 151
Chapter 4
Hubert Lucot, or the Writing of Duration 189
Conclusion: Towards a Politics of Becoming? 227
Additional Bibliography 241
Index of Names 251
Acknowledgements
It is humbling to think of all the people, from England to France via an
American institution in the heart of Paris where I now teach, who have sup-
ported the research and writing of this book and helped with its realization.
It started as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge in the
early 2000s where Jean Khalfa, Emma Wilson, Andrew Brown and Sarah
Kay provided unstinting support and encouragement. Special thanks are
due to them for their knowledge, generous advice and constructive criti-
cism which guided me through the early stages of the project.
The geographical meanders during the writing of this book express
a strong momentum behind it, at first barely conscious. For me, studying
French poetry implied leaving France (as well as French); it meant travelling
to England the better to examine this poetry from a distance – and from
outside. I can say now that the immediate judiciousness of such a move was
initially lost on most colleagues back on the continent and even on me, on
occasions, as I found myself struggling less with the language I was exam-
ining than with the one in which I was writing down my findings – and
I am afraid that some of this original bougé still remains in my expression
throughout the book, notwithstanding the good will and remarkable craft
of Sam Ladkin, Malcolm Philipps, Robin Purves and Keston Sutherland,
to whom I am most grateful for their input and linguistic expertise. Yet I
also suspect that an extra distance from my object is what I was seeking in
the use of a language other than my own and the one I studied, as if being
twice removed from the ‘foreign language’ that is poetry, to speak like
Deleuze after Proust, could somehow be useful when reading it. What I do
know is that I would not have been able to complete this book without the
assistance of various individuals and institutions, and that it is a pleasure
to acknowledge my debt to them here.
I have benefited enormously from the friendship and trust of Olivier
Cadiot, Dominique Fourcade, Hubert Lucot and Christian Prigent, the
viii Acknowledgements
four authors studied in this book. They have welcomed my project and
generously provided me with unpublished material, original manuscripts
and limited editions of their work. In our numerous conversations they
kindly shared their own insights on French literature, culture and politics,
and our discussions were often where my ideas were formed, challenged
and evolved. Without such benevolent contributions this book would not
be what it is. I owe them my deepest and most sincere gratitude.
At various stages of the writing, several colleagues and friends com-
mented on parts of the manuscript in productive and helpful ways. Others
provided me with fora in which to present my ideas or helped with research
material. Some shared their thoughts on issues addressed in the book in
individual or collective discussions, and I would like to extend my heartfelt
appreciation to all of them. They are: Benoît Auclerc, Hugo Azérad, Alain
Badiou, Jan Baetens, Richard Beardswhorth, Véronique Bergen, Béatrice
Bloch, Jean-Pierre Bobillot, Andrea Brady, Michael Brophy, Vincent
Broqua, Olivier Brossard, Hervé Castanet, David Christof fel, Yan Ciret,
Martin Crowley, François Cusset, Christian Doumet, Nathalie Dupont,
Elie During, Jean-Michel Espitallier, Alain Farah, Oliver Feltham, Barry
Flood, Alessandro de Francesco, Eric Giraud, Jean-Marie Gleize, Chris
Goode, Bénédicte Gorrillot, Rob Holloway, Martin Hoolbrad, Christophe
Kihm, Sam Ladkin, the late Josée Lapeyrère, Lissa Licoln, Luigi Magno,
Alyce Mahon, Peter Manson, Hughes Marchal, Rod Mengham, Tim
Morris, Michel Murat, Roberto Nigro, Srini Padmanabhan, Nina Parish,
Morton Pedersen, Malcolm Philipps, Anne-Marie Picard, Jean-Jacques
Poucel, Jeremy Prynne, Robin Purves, Nathalie Quintane, David Raboin,
Jacques Rancière, Tom Rayworth, Stephen Rodefer, the late Marie-Claire
Ropars, Joe Rodriguez, David Ruf fel, Lionel Ruf fel, Michael Sheringham,
Pierre Sorlin, John Stout, Keston Sutherland, Charles Talcott, Jean-Jacques
Thomas, Eric Trudel, Alain Viala, Dominique Viart, Ingrid Wassenaar,
Noura Wedell, Nathalie Wourm, David Zerbib and Laurent Zimmermann.
Naturally, all errors, shortcomings and omissions in the book are my respon-
sibility alone.
At Peter Lang I am very grateful to Peter Collier for having welcomed
this book into his series and of fered his much welcomed advice on early
versions of the manuscript, and later having lent his sharp eye to advanced
