{"title":"Against the Grain: The Poetics of Non-Normative Masculinity in Decadent French Literature by Mathew Rickard (review)","authors":"Michael E. Lucey","doi":"10.1093/fs/knad020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knad020","url":null,"abstract":"In this book, Mathew Rickard capably and enthusiastically studies ‘the literary representation of non-normative masculinity at a time when masculinity was perceived to be in crisis’ (p. 18). For Rickard, the fin-de-siècle masculinity crisis ‘ironically allowed greater representation of alternative behaviours and identities precisely due to the questioning of masculinity that was occurring’ (p. 18). Are there places and times when masculinity is not in crisis for someone? How are we to decide if one individual’s masculinity crisis is of wider consequence? Rickard, who situates his writers in the context of the loss of the Franco-Prussian War, concerns about depopulation, struggles for women’s emancipation, and a new sexological interest in ‘perversity’, wonders if masculinity is ‘inherently toxic’ or if ‘queerer, intersectional, even healthier forms of masculinity [can] flourish’ (p. 13). Do all non-normative forms of masculinity array themselves on the side of the queer? Is the queer always a ‘healthier’ or more progressive option? Rickard’s book joins a fascinating body of recent work addressing these difficult questions. Marlon B. Ross’s Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022), for instance, is interesting to read in parallel with Rickard’s volume. At one point, Ross tellingly juxtaposes James Baldwin and Truman Capote. Baldwin is Ross’s exemplar of successful insurgency. Capote’s masculinity, for all its non-normative misfittedness, is one some might qualify as counter-insurgent. ‘Sissiness is manifested differently in different racial formations’, Ross suggests (Sissy Insurgencies, p. 29). Racial formations per se do not come up in Rickard’s study, but he mentions, for instance, ‘the intersection of class and masculinity’ (Against the Grain, p. 46). I might tend to surmise that at least one or two of the four figures Rickard studies fall mostly on the Capote side of things (non-normative masculinity being a privilege aligned with other social entitlements) rather than the Baldwin one, but perhaps Rickard would have a different view. Clusters of interrelated social variables specific to different socio-cultural contexts are crucial to the evaluation of any instance of non-normative masculinity. Forms of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ are themselves plural in most historical contexts. When Jean Lorrain and Joris-Karl Huysmans, from their very different social locations, engage with ‘masculinity’, are they engaging with the same thing? Are all people who exhibit non-normative masculinity ‘adversely affected by the laws of the Patriarchy’ (p. 11) to the same degree and in the same way? Rickard begins his demonstration with Huysmans’s À rebours (1884), exploring how ‘non-normative men can appropriate a hegemonic identity through engaging with literature’ (p. 60). He then examines how, in Lorrain’s Monsieur de Phocas (1901), ‘the representation of witchcraft [...] links to the presentation of non-n","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131321681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Les Normes de prononciation du français: une étude perceptive panfrancophone par Marc Chalier (review)","authors":"David Hornsby","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac224","url":null,"abstract":"fecundity of the allegorical castle in literature, and the close links between architectural and textual poetics. This inspiring volume is complemented by a thematically arranged bibliography of both recent and landmark works on all topics related to allegorical theory and practice encompassed within the range of this book","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"156 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121524302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"France in the Second World War: Collaboration, Resistance, Holocaust, Empire by Chris Millington (review)","authors":"D. Drake","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac216","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124838938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Le Privilège des livres: bilinguisme et concurrence culturelle dans le 'Roman de Fauvel' remanié et dans les gloses au premier livre de l''Ovide moralisé' par Thibaut Radomme (review)","authors":"J. Ducos","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac220","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac220","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133302136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Illegibility: Blanchot and Hegel by William S. Allen (review)","authors":"M. Holland","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac225","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129937474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Artificial Generation: Photogenic French Literature and the Prehistory of Cinematic Modernity by Christina Parker-Flynn (review)","authors":"P. ffrench","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac217","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac217","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"154 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113972917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Poétiques de la filiation. Clément Marot et ses maîtres: Jean Marot, Jean Lemaire et Guillaume Cretin par Ellen Delvallée (review)","authors":"Anton Bruder","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac209","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116726260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Life as Creative Constraint: Autobiography and the Oulipo by Anna Kemp (review)","authors":"D. Bellos","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac203","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126277548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Politics and 'Politiques' in Sixteenth-Century France: A Conceptual History by Emma Claussen (review)","authors":"R. Boone","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac206","url":null,"abstract":"génie français, an assessment shared down the centuries by authors from La Fontaine to Sainte-Beuve. Yet his immediate successors as court poets, the Pléiade, deplored Marot for his perceived over-attachment to traditional poetics and his inability to craft a suitably distinct poetic voice. Recent scholarship has undermined the Pléiade’s disingenuous critique, and champions instead Marot’s role as an unprecedented innovator in French poetry, whose revolutionary poetics demarcates a literary-historical boundary between medieval and (early) modern. However, by cutting Marot off from his predecessors in order to place him at the threshold of modernity, Delvallée contends that modern scholarship risks obscuring the poet’s true genius almost as much as the Pléiade’s account, which made Marot the last of the so-called Grands Rhétoriqueurs. In Delvallée’s own words, therefore, ‘[à] l’idée de rupture nette ou de révolution esthétique, il suffit d’opposer celle de dette ou de filiation’ (p. 11). To this end, and over the course of nearly a thousand pages, the author subjects Marot’s œuvre to close analysis, placing it in relation to those of his immediate predecessors and acknowledged masters in the poetic art, such as his father Jean Marot, the polymathic Jean Lemaire de Belges, and the court poet Guillaume Cretin. In the course of this analysis, Marot’s poetry reveals itself to be deeply engaged in a process of appropriating and transforming these models, simultaneously honouring and dissimulating his debts to his poetic fathers. Delvallée concludes that Marot’s poetry is characterized by not one but a multiplicity of ‘poétiques de la filiation, constamment repensées selon les genres ou les objectifs rhétoriques’ of the work in question (p. 889).","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121939438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Writing Queer Identities in Morocco: Abdellah Taïa and Moroccan Committed Literature by Tina Dransfeldt Christensen (review)","authors":"Siham Bouamer","doi":"10.1093/fs/knac145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac145","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":332929,"journal":{"name":"French Studies: A Quarterly Review","volume":"301 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131766344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}