Description
Book SynopsisIn André du Bouchet: Poetic Forms of Attention, Emma Wagstaff provides the first book-length study in English of this major poet of the second half of the twentieth century. She shows how Du Bouchet’s rigorous and innovative creative and critical writing advances our understanding of attention. Du Bouchet is known as a post-war poet of the natural world and the space of the page. Far from just a solitary writer, however, he engaged with others through his work as editor, critic, and translator, and his involvement in the protests of May 1968. Emma Wagstaff shows how his writing demonstrates nuanced attention to language, time, nature, and art, and incites a ‘slow’ response on the part of the reader.
Trade Review“This study’s author establishes an intriguing closeness to and slight distance from her peers, grounding her arguments in recent criticism while indicating where she is inclined to agree or disagree. […] we continually learn essentials about Du Bouchet while entering as possible the mindset corresponding to specific works and to his overall poetic project. […] The critical apparatus offers a reliable guide, as does the laudable overall intentionality. The author communicates to a broad audience, structures the study meaningfully as regards primary sources, shows with precision how texts shape perception, progresses toward examination of art writing (134–55) and the process of life writing (158–92), consistently incorporates important thinkers and academics, and provides English translations at all junctures. The diverse analyses concerning awareness of form, attentiveness to time, and appreciation for people and things in the outer world are compelling. This monograph of lasting value facilitates access to Du Bouchet’s writings and eloquently demonstrates his oeuvre’s ongoing relevance.” - Aaron Prevost, French Review, May 2022.
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1 Du Bouchet and his Poetic Context 2 Du Bouchet’s Contributions to the Review l’Éphémère 1 L’Éphémère and the Twentieth-Century French Literary Review 2 L’Éphémère and 3 ‘« Sous les pavés, la plage » Notes du [ ] mai 1968’ 4 The Form of l’Éphémère 3 Poetry and Pauses 1 The Material World 2 Time in the Texts 3 Forms of Temporal Attention 4 ‘Soutiré à un futur’ 4 Tensions and Translation 1 Foreignness and Relation 2 ‘Notes sur la traduction’ 3 ‘Lit de neige’ 5 Criticism and Slowness 1 Du Bouchet critic 2 Art Writing 3 Du Bouchet’s Slow Art Writing 4 De plusieurs déchirements dans les parages de la peinture 6 A Life Writing 1 Autobiography and Projects 2 Rewriting the Carnets 3 Rewriting Published Texts 4 ‘À l’arrêt’ Conclusion 1 A Note on Translation 2 Poetry’s Role? Bibliography Index
