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Gestuaire by Sylvie Kandé

2017; American Association of Teachers of French; Volume: 91; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tfr.2017.0467

2329-7131

Aaron Prevots,

Historical and Literary Analyses

Reviews 267 dernière découverte au sujet de son passé. Dans l’ensemble, peu d’effets de style dans ce roman qui aborde un sujet particulièrement difficile à représenter. C’est à travers une écriture limpide et une grande justesse de ton que l’auteur nous fait ressentir ce que l’enfant-narrateur a vu et entendu. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin Kandé, Sylvie. Gestuaire. Paris: Gallimard, 2016. ISBN 978-2-07-017895-7. Pp. 112. The finely nuanced poems of Kandé’s third collection grab the reader through their themes, voices, and sounds. Inventive and powerfully imaginative, they portray people of various social classes, places, and eras via writing meant to be both tender and violent, to “fissur[er] la surface lisse de l’évidence et boulevers[er] le temps dans sa course annoncée”(103). Kandé shows a multidimensional gift for surging, energetic structures and for language play that emerges as if from within the soul of personae. Though continual alliterations are sometimes a distraction, she brings to life legends and allegorical threads that could be shared with communities large and small, general readers curious to discover human experience in the here and now as well as those attuned to a collective past. Kandé’s“aventure poétique”(103) immerses us enticingly in joy, pain, and sorrow. It alludes to cultural figures in epigraphs—Aimé Césaire (14), Ludovic Janvier (18), John Coltrane (31), Paol Keineg (34), James Sacré (45),Antonin Artaud (55), Joe Cocker (64), Langston Hughes (68)—while avoiding clichés. Broken into six sections—“D’air et d’eau,”“Les coups durs,”“Creuser,”“Morts en guerre,”“Qui gagne à être tu,”and“Ce que parler veut dire”—Gestuaire retains a narrative arc within and across each part. Much of the volume’s appeal comes from the ease with which it conveys individuals’ plight. Aiming to foreground poetic speech poised midway between orality and the literary, the visceral and the refined, it succeeds by introducing unpredictable scenes and garrulous characters within a mostly fluid style and intriguingly varied formats and rhythms, frequently setting our sights on locales beyond l’Hexagone. In brief poems and more developed ones accentuated by songlike refrains, Kandé shows a frequent knack for strong images well phrased and judiciously placed within pulsating verse. This imagery emerges organically from each vignette or tale that is told, adding to our appreciation of poetic voice and of the struggles depicted. For example, “Appel d’air” contrasts the “secrets saumâtres [qui] hantent les marées basses” with “l’écho attendu de mon sang retourné” (11). “Génocide” begins a death scene with mention of how “[e]n bas, la rue aiguisait en riant ses couteaux” (26). “Coup d’œil”moves with a mix of stealth and self-awareness from steps taken toward a rendez-vous “près du débarcadère,” to an implicit comparison of a “[c]oup de chapeau”with a“[b]otte dans les côtes—pure nostalgie”(56).As the book progresses, groups of texts suggest tensions between virtue and suffering as well as slavery, war, wandering, and “des choses qui gagnent à être tues” (93). The final poems juxtapose “ces fredaines [mises] au compte de la saison” and “l’habitude [...] de chanter sans répons”(101) with stoic“[b]ouches cousues en prévision des interviews”(102).Kandé’s evocative, story-like poems have distinctive flair and verve. They are recommended for those interested in intersections between poetry and prose, song and allegory, everyday speech and eloquence, and history and its singular retellings. Southwestern University (TX) Aaron Prevots Kaplan, Leslie. Mathias et la Révolution. Paris: P.O.L, 2016. ISBN 978-2-8180-37225 . Pp. 256. Nous sommes à Paris à une époque récente, et Mathias marche à travers la ville. Il pense aux grands moments de la Révolution et aux mots de ses grands orateurs. Au fil des citations de Saint-Just, de Robespierre et autres révolutionnaires, on se rend compte qu’ils avaient une audace dans l’imagination et l’expression qui fait gravement défaut aujourd’hui. Mais Mathias marcherait-il à contre-courant? Dans une France où l’emploi est difficile d’accès, où règne...