Poésie et mythe dans l’œuvre de Patrick Modiano: le fardeau du nomade by Paul Gellings

MLRy 98.2, 2003 469 unnecessary repetition), Pinelli uses his familiarity with the manuscript to support many judicious comments about Mauriac's art as a novelist. Rather than seeking to offeran interpretation of Genitrix, Pinelli confines his comments to stylistic matters, stressing in particular Mauriac's drive towards a dramatic, 'Racinian' concision. It is fascinating to see an artist at work and Pinelli succeeds admirably in helping us see how this particular novelist practised his craft. This excellent edition will prove indispensable to mauriaciens foryears to come. University of Exeter Paul Cooke Poesie et mythe dans I'aeuvre de Patrick Modiano: le fardeau du nomade. By Paul Gellings. ('Situation', 55) Paris-Caen: Lettres Modernes Minard. 2000. 209 pp. 170 F. ISBN 2-256-91014-8. Although Modiano has been a prize-winning novelist (several times over) since 1968, critical appreciation of his ceuvre has been slow in coming. It was only in the 1990s that full-length studies of his work began to appear (the single exception being Colin W. Nettlebeck and Penelope A. Hueston's Patrick Modiano: pieces d'identite, ecrire I'entretemps(Paris: Lettres Modernes Minard, 1986)), and these tended, on the whole, to fulfilan introductory role. Recently, however, a number of new studies have ap? peared; taken together, they offera wider range of critical perspectives on Modiano's work. Paul Gellings's book is one of these, and is an excellent instance of the kind of interest for which 'etudes modianiennes' now seems ripe. Gellings certainly takes as read our familiaritywith Modiano's novels, and his book is refreshingly free of plot summaries or lengthy biographical sketches. His aim is to 'definir la personnalitelitteraireou la poetique de Modiano' (p. 197), and the tripartite structure is a reflection of his method. Part 1sets out a case forconsidering Modiano's texts to be examples of the 'recit poetique', characterized, among other things, by a deep-seated commitment to myth-making (hence the title Poesie et mythe). The parameters of Gellings's analysis are set by the definition of the genre supplied by Jean-Yves Tadie in Le Recit poetique (Paris: Gallimard, 1994). Parts 11and 111 describe two of these myths, those of TEnfant trouve' and 'le Juiferrant', who are seen to be fundamental to Modiano's imaginative universe. The figure of TEnfant trouve' is taken from Marthe Robert's Roman des origines et origines du roman (Paris: Grasset, 1972), in which Robert describes the narrator ofthe Freudian 'roman familial' (a primitive novelistic type, in her genealogy of the novel) as an Oedipal child. In Gellings's scheme, this child becomes a kind of prototype of Modiano's narrators, all of whom have a 'besoin de creer des origines; besoin de regler un compte cedipien' (p. 199). 'Le Juiferrant' is a more historical persona, and Gellings builds up his definition of this figurefrom three named works of reference. The condemnation of the wandering Jew to eternal 'errance' finds convincing echoes in the destiny of Modiano's rootless narra? tors who walk incessantly around Paris: as forthe historical figure's immortality, it is translated into the textual immortality of Modiano's narrator. Thus, as Gellings con? vincingly argues, the similarity of Modiano's many narrators, forwhich the novelist is oftencriticized, is in facta way ofconferring textual immortality upon a single narrato? rial figurewhose identity transcends his multiple appearances in the individual novels. The effectof using different,specific methodologies forthe three parts is a slightly schizophrenic one, but the readings of the novels are penetrating and sensitive, and the case for classifying Modiano's texts as 'recits poetiques' is intelligently and persuasively made. It is a shame that the conclusion simplifies the subtle discussions 47? Reviews by summarizing: 'ainsi, c'est le pere qui constitue la force motrice de la poetique de Modiano' (p. 200), but this does not detract fromthe originality ofthe study as a whole. University of Warwick Akane Kawakami Quebec National Cinema. By Bill Marshall. Montreal, London, and Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2001. xi + 37ipp. ?46 (pbk ?19.95). ISBN 0-7735-2103-8 (pbk 0-7735-2116-x). As Bill Marshall states in his firstchapter, there is no doubt that Quebec cinema is a 'national cinema...

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