French Literature Reviews - 2026

A.-M. Christin, Poétique du blanc. Vide et intervalle dans la civilisation de l'alphabet
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Review published in Acta Fabula: "Poétique du blanc" by Marianne Simon-Oikawa.

Poétique du blanc. Vide et intervalle dans la civilisation de l'alphabet

Anne-Marie Christin

Paris: Vrin, coll. "Essais d'art et de philosophie", 2009.

EAN 9782711621972

Price 23EUR

208 p.

Abstract

Why is white space—so precious to painters across all cultures—referred to in the West solely in terms of absence or lack? The hypothesis put forward is that this ignorance, or rather rejection, of white space stems from the mindset shaped by the alphabet. By inventing a system to transcribe speech using vowels and consonants, the Greeks transformed writing into a graphic code.

Back cover

Why is white space—so precious to painters of all cultures and essential to Chinese and Japanese calligraphers—referred to in the West solely in terms of absence or lack? Yet, as Wittgenstein himself noted, this color is never conceived here as transparent: it always remains that of a luminous and impenetrable surface. The hypothesis advanced in this book is that our ignorance, or rather our rejection, of white space stems from the thought model we owe to the alphabet. By inventing the transcription of speech through vowels and consonants, the Greeks transformed writing into a graphic code, thereby triggering a mutation in its history that, from the creation of ideographic systems to that of Semitic writing, had never been contemplated: the exclusion of the visual component of writing, and of its reading, from its operational principles.

Here one will find the elements of a dossier on the subject, along with several pieces of evidence. Evidence of the ostracism of white space by Western culture, of the role played by the alphabet in this process, and of its consequences extending right into how this culture conceives of the sign. But there is also evidence of the creative breakthroughs that the rediscovery of white space has inspired—first in images, both pictorial and photographic, and subsequently in literary creation during the age of print.

Anne-Marie Christin investigates the historical and philosophical consequences of the alphabetic writing system, particularly how the ancient Greek invention of transcribing speech through vowels and consonants marginalized the visual dimension of texts. While traditions such as Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, alongside Western painting, embrace blank space as an integral component of meaning, alphabetic literacy traditionally treats it merely as a void or a lack. This monograph gathers evidence of this cultural ostracism and traces how the sign has been conceptualized in the West, offering a profound reflection on the relationship between graphic form and visual perception.

The book also highlights the creative breakthroughs that occurred when artists and writers began to rediscover the potential of intervals and empty space, moving from pictorial and photographic arts into modern print literature. It serves as an essential resource for scholars of literary theory, semiotics, and cultural history who seek to understand the structural biases of Western typography. By questioning the hegemony of the phonetic sign, this study invites readers to reconsider the page not only as a support for spoken language, but as a spatial canvas where silence and visibility interact.