Freeman G. Henry, ed.
Beginnings in French Literature
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002. Pp. 213. US $40.00

Reviewed by Catherine Parayre

Taking Edward W. Said's influential Beginnings: Intention and Method as their theoretical foundation, the volume's fifteen essays (including six in French) examine various forms of "beginnings" in literature which entail the reformulation of existing views or practices rather than a radical break from them. Although twentieth-century literature dominates the discussions, the works studied range from medieval to contemporary texts and explore different types of preambles and innovations.

Some of the "beginnings" reflect cultural and social innovations. In his discussion of the Roman d'Eneas, R. Howard Bloch finds that the twelfth-century romance, in opposition to the epic, illustrates the period's emerging interest in relativism, dialectics, and ancient Aristotelianism. Later, competing arts poétiques of the Renaissance reveal, in their observations on poetic language, the nascent national sentiment of the time. This and other articles, notably the study of the seventeenth-century pastoral novel and the analysis of André Gide's conflicted reservations about colonial rule, posit that the expression of seemingly new ideas is culturally conditioned.

"Beginnings" can also be the very first pages of a book. For instance, Barbara T. Cooper shows how the first act of a play foreshadows the plot and its resolution. Other essays, looking at such diverse texts as François de La Mothe le Vayer's Le Parasite mormon (1650), nineteenth-century travel narratives, and recent francophone texts by André and Simone Schwartz-Bart and by Patrick Chamoiseau, investigate the significance of "paratextual" elements, such as frame narratives, prefaces, illustrations, dedications, or multiple references to different authors and their works. They address questions of authorship as well as literary influence and authority and point out that, however innovative in their argument or form, these texts refer to and modify previous models.

Several essays show that genre conventions inform even the most striking textual innovations. Thus, one article studies hashish narratives that circulated in nineteenth-century Paris, arguing that they actually reenact firmly codified theatrical plots. Another joins in the debate as to whether the concept of "autofiction" describes new writing practices in the 1970s or simply represents a variation of the autobiographical genre. Emphasizing the role of literary conventions, other articles document techniques that francophone novelists, including Arab-French or Caribbean, deploy to contest the French literary canon.

Some of the most intriguing insights in the volume, however, are to be found in the articles treating topics related to what precedes or follows the production of the literary work. For instance, Zahi Zalloua suggests that the scholarly interpretation of Montaigne's Essais is predetermined by the critic's choice of a specific theoretical framework. Also of interest is how a subscription form, such as the one for Guillaume Apollinaire's L'Enchanteur pourrissant, or the author's preparation for writing, as is the case with Georges Perec, can provide perspective and a thought-provoking introduction to the work.

The essays included in the volume survey an eclectic array of "beginnings" in literature. Yet they converge on at least two points. Firstly, they grant no groundbreaking originality to any of the works studied. They are believed to be innovative mainly because they lend a new orientation to established literary and cultural models. Secondly, most of the articles focus on how such "beginnings" make use of various techniquesfrom medieval rhetoric to commercial strategiesin order to catch the reader's attention and ensure a favorable reception. Undoubtedly, one of the volume's strongest points is its detailed demonstration that "beginnings" in literature share, in fact, a solid tradition.