Coprésences, entrecroisements: le pictural et le narratif chez Marie-Claire Blais et Sergio Kokis by Kirsty Bell

image ne se fige pas, elle s’arrête néanmoins sur le visage d’Adama qui nous regarde droit dans les yeux,assis sagement dans une nouvelle salle de classe quelque part dans la Creuse,un petit sourire triomphant aux lèvres après avoir murmuré—sans hésitation— les vers de du Bellay. Si la question identitaire ne se pose pas ici, la trajectoire de l’adolescent reprend les caractéristiques principales du récit d’apprentissage et parvient quelque peu à nous faire oublier les excès narratifs qui emprisonnent la banlieue dans une vision dichotomique et misérabiliste. DePauw University (IN) Cheira Belguellaoui Literary History and Criticism edited by Marion Geiger Bell, Kirsty. Coprésences, entrecroisements: le pictural et le narratif chez Marie-Claire Blais et Sergio Kokis.Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014. ISBN 978-90-420-3887-5. Pp. 272. 61 a. As part of the Chiasma series, this significant volume on the interplay between text and image in selected works of two Québécois authors exemplifies the collection’s goals of “focusing upon joinings and criss-crossings [...] in the realm of modern French literature,”with studies that“may be of an interdisciplinary nature, developing connections with art, philosophy, linguistics and beyond” (5). Beginning with a succinct but thorough synthesis of critical theory relating to interarts discourse, the book’s first chapter serves as an excellent introduction to the methodological framework necessary for mining the wealth of interdisciplinary perspectives found in the four novels studied: Une saison dans la vie d’Emmanuel and Le sourd dans la ville by Marie-Claire Blais, and L’art du maquillage and Le pavillon des miroirs by Sergio Kokis. Although Bell acknowledges the possibly incongruous nature of a comparison of the authors and works examined, this interdisciplinary study carefully establishes an organizational context in which the works in question demonstrate the potential of the critical discourse, from the distinction between images in praesentia and those in absentia, to ekphrasis, paratextuality, and intertextuality. Rather than highlight the differences between the two arts,“une exploration de ce qui relie et de ce qui distingue les formes et les fonctions de ces deux modes d’expression est fondamentale: elle nous permet d’identifier les lieux d’intersection et les modalités de combinaison”(21). Moreover, the book astutely refers to Antoine Boisclair and Vincent Lambert’s assertion that Québécois artistic modernity was based on the relationship between literature and painting (38–39), insisting on the innumerable texts from Québécois literary history that rely upon this dynamic. Readers from established academics to graduate students will appreciate the detailed analysis in the following chapters, 246 FRENCH REVIEW 90.3 Reviews 247 including an examination of the illustrated edition of Une saison dans la vie d’Emmanuel by Mary Meigs and a consideration of Blais’s expressionist aesthetic and reference to specific artworks (Edvard Munch, George Grosz), in addition to the beautifully nuanced discussions of the importance of Kokis’s paintings within his literary creations. While Bell is careful not to claim the role of art critic or historian, this impressive volume deftly handles concepts ranging from artist biography and selfportraiture to the use and affective value of color in convincingly explicating the fascinating “coprésences” and “entrecroisements” between text and image in these Québécois works. Lastly, although the concluding chapter is rather short and unsatisfying in its summary restating of evidence, it offers many suggestions for further avenues of possible research on related subjects—most notably the undoubtedly fertile study of the character of the artist in Québécois literature. Illinois Wesleyan University Scott Sheridan Best,Francine,Bruno Blanckeman,et Francine Dugast-Portes,éd.Annie Ernaux: le temps et la mémoire. Paris: Stock, 2014. ISBN 978-2-234-07821-5. Pp. 486. 23 a. In personal remarks included in this volume, Ernaux expresses a sense of wonder at having been the subject of a Colloque de Cerisy that attracted an international cast of participants from a range of disciplines. In her eyes, her work has always been modest in scope:“[J]e ne vois que la poursuite d’un désir obscur, persévérant, solitaire, de mettre...

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