HIV Stories: The Archeology of AIDS Writing in France, 1985-1988 (review)

1002 Reviews vibrant account of the Les Temps modernes polemic and drawing out Camus's dissent from would-be infallible political theories and the killing they spawned. Yet Charbit rightlylaments the absence in L'Homme revolte of any sustained critique of European colonialism. He highlights the paradox whereby Camus, while attributing British and French colonial repression to '[le] meme prejuge irrationnel de superiorite raciale' (p- 33)> consigns the reflection to a footnote; and symptomatically, Camus's explo? ration ofhistorical revolt makes no reference to compelling examples ofethical protest such as that provided by Ghandi's non-violent resistance. While Charbit notes the failure of the 'Pensee de midi' to engage the political or philosophical imagination, Frank Planeille resituates the utopianist Mediterranean finale to the essay by invoking Camus's friendship and dialogue with Rene Char. Planeille's cross-reading of Char's 'Billets a Francis Curel' and Camus's conclusion succeeds in removing the label of philosophy that never adequately suited the essay. Further recontextualization is pro? vided by Mark Orme, who underscores the therapeutic dimension in the writing of L'Homme revolte: thus Camus, who, as a high-profile journalist at the time of the epurations, temporarily endorsed the death penalty, writes, as he himself confesses, out of a sense of 'dechirement d'avoir accru l'injustice en croyant servir la justice' (p. 108). The experience of ethical failure lived, crucially, at a personal level thus provides a significant vantage point from which to re-examine the essay. Camus's uneasy relationship with the philosophy of history and in particular with Christian and Marxist teleologies forms the dominant focus in the analysis of Francoise TrageserRebetez , whose microtextual reading suggestively explores light/dark, masculine/ feminine, and nature/history oppositions in Camus's rhetoric. Intriguing material on Camus's reception in North America in the post-war period emerges in two contributions: Konrad Bieber reflectson the seriously defective 1954 English translation of L'Homme revolte, while Fernande Bartfeld reconstructs Ca? mus's itinerary on his spring 1946 lecture tour. Whereas Claude Levi-Strauss, conseiller culturel in New York, arranged the US venues forthis still relatively unknown French author, Camus's earlier condemnation of Petain in Combat earned him a cool reception in francophone Canada. An appended 'Etudes' section contains three comparative studies: Benedict O'Donohoe 's engaging parallel reading of Sartre's 'L'Enfance d'un chef and Camus's 'Jonas'; an exploration by Brigitte Sandig of Christoph Hein's 1984 Der fremde Freund (L'Ami etranger) in the light ofL'Etranger\ and Hiroshi Mino's analysis of Lettres a un ami allemand alongside Bernanos's L^tre aux Anglais and Saint-Exupery's Le^re aux Francais. Royal Holloway, University of London Edward Hughes HIVStories: The Archeology ofAIDS Writingin France, iq85-1 g88. By Jean-Pierre Boule. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2002. vii+184 pp. ?39-95 (pbk ?17.95)- ISBN 0-85323-568-6 (pbk 0-85323-578-3). Following the publication of Jean-Pierre Boule's consideration of Herve Guibert's writing, and in particular of the interplay between truth, fiction, and falsehood in Guibert's 1990s AIDS texts (in Herve Guibert: Voices of the Self (Liverpool: Liv? erpool University Press, 1999)), Boule here turns his attention to what he calls the 'pre-history' of AIDS writing in France. Unearthing six very differenttexts from a key period in the French epidemic, Boule's contention is that while the writings under consideration are largely obscured fromcurrent consideration, they constituted a field of discourse through which France's understandings and misunderstandings of the epidemic found legitimate expression, and in so doing, paved the way for the more MLRy 98.4, 2003 1003 literary opus which was to follow. This is not to say, however, that the texts examined here are without merit on their own terms. Drawing on theories of psychoanalysis, gender and masculinity, and social and cultural comment, Boule teases out the psy? chological figures and personal investments working within each text, as their authors address the reticences, interdictions, and struggles inherent in speaking about AIDS in France during the 1980s. In the process, he ties each ofthe texts discussed to what emerges as a crisis of national identity...

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