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Jules Verne, la science et l'espace: Travail de la rêverie by Christian Chelebourg

2006; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 101; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mlr.2006.0424

2222-4319

Timothy Unwin,

Historical and Literary Analyses

II30 Reviews explanation would greatly diminish the impact and the scope of the poem, and go counter to the poet's intention, which is to convey the scandal and mystery ofmadness and of the 'monstre innocent'. Echos from other works are sometimes made to influence the possible reading of a poem without due regard to context. The title of 'Le Chien et le flacon' recalls the prologue toGargantua, which compares the diligent reader to a dog that will be able to penetrate to 'la substantificque mouelle' (p. 123) of the book. No doubt, but the echo is one of contrast, not of similarity, and cannot justify the admittedly tentative suggestion that the prose poem 'may thus disguise its intertextual complexity: what seems excremental on the surface may be refined inside' (p. 124). The commentary goes on to evoke Daumier's caricature of the Gargantuan Louis-Philippe, which is said to resemble Menippean satire, and to conclude that since 'Le Chien et le flacon' 'embeds a reference toDaumier and toRabelais's prologue' (p. I25), it constitutes an 'artful allusion' (p. I25) to this kind of satire, which is then said to preside over the Spleen as awhole. Clearly, the argument is insufficient to sustain the conclusion. On occasion the commentary ismarked by the kind of linguistic legerdemain and strained parallels found in some recent criticism: 'cut', 'abortive', and the narrator's 'clinical' observation in 'Mademoiselle Bistouri'; printingpresses (tir/tirage) conjured up in 'Le Tir et le cimetiere'; the cut-up snake and, with the help of etymology, the 'volonte retive' (p. 37) of the reader in the 'Dedicace' aremade to recall respectively the guillotined Pierrot in De l'essence du rire and the donkey in 'Un plaisant'. In addition, there are some odd translations from the French, and uncertainty about the nature and function of 'le comique absolu' which is said to pervade the prose poems. All this is a pity because there are many pieces of perceptive and nuanced criti cism. In particular, Scott is adept at identifying the narrator's blindness to his own blameworthiness, as in 'LeGateau' and 'La Fausse Monnaie' (in which, incidentally, she takes Derrida successfully to task), and she handles with great dexterity the prob lem of the flawed narrator whose pronouncements make it difficult or impossible to determine the poet's own stance. The exhaustive and wide-ranging analysis of 'Les Foules' and related passages in Le Peintre de la vie moderne and Yournaux intimes also stands out as a valuable contribution. OXFORD J.A. HIDDLESTON J7ules Verne, la science et l'espace: travail de la reverie. By CHRISTIAN CHELEBOURG. (Archives des Lettres Modernes, 282) Paris and Caen: Lettres Modernes Mi nard. 2005. I44pp. Ei8. ISBN 2-256-90476-8. In amodest study based on readings of half a dozen texts from the Vernian corpus, Christian Chelebourg wrestles with one of the problems that have preoccupied almost every critic of recent times: namely, the relationship between the artistic imagination and scientific fact or theory. Pursuing the broadly mythical and psychocritical ap proaches of his previous work (in particularyules Verne: l'ceil et le ventre, unepoetique du sujet (Paris: Lettres Modernes Minard, I999)), Chelebourg insists heavily on the antagonism between Verne's science and his poetics. Not one to let factual or theo retical issues stand in his way, Verne creates a fictional world heavily invested with his own sense of the extraordinary and the fantastic, and he allows poetic fantasy to take over completely in novels like Hector Servadac orMaitre du monde (each of which is analysed separately in a brief chapter). Clearly, Chelebourg believes less in the effective symbiosis or overlap between science and poetry than inVerne's ulti mate rejection of the first. This argument is defended vigorously and effectively with close readings both of well-known and of more marginal texts in the Vernian canon. MLR, IOI .4, 2oo6 I13I In addition to those mentioned above, there are chapters or substantial sections on Voyage au centre de la terre, Le Village aerien, Les Indes noires, and the short story 'M. Re-Dieze etMlle Mi-Bemol'. Where Chelebourg perhaps loses an opportunity in this pertinent and important discussion is in the relatively...