French Literature Reviews - 2026
Y. Hanhart-Marmor, The Powers of Ekphrasis: The Auratic Object in the Work of Claude Simon
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Review published in Acta Fabula (April 2015, vol. 16, no. 4): "Claude Simon: From Ekphrasis to Icon" by Philippe Richard.
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Yona Hanhart-Marmor, The Powers of Ekphrasis: The Auratic Object in the Work of Claude Simon
Amsterdam: Rodopi, coll. "Faux titre", 2014.
314 p.
EAN 9789042038615 Paper €67,-/US$94,-
ISBN: 978-94-012-1103-1 E-Book €60,-/US$84,-
Online info: http://www.rodopi.nl/functions/search.asp?BookId=FAUX+396
Publisher's overview:
To view ekphrasis—the description of a work of art—as one of the essential keys to the novel, and thereby to open up an innovative reflection on text, image, and their multiple intersections: such is the challenge underlying this essay. Through a meticulous analysis of the processes crafted by Claude Simon to render the usual distinction between narrative and descriptive pause inoperative, the gaze reveals itself as the catalyst of writing, shaping it while simultaneously being captured by it. This close textual re-reading of Simon's corpus highlights the crucial role of ekphrasis in the transition from gaze to word.
In this approach, ekphrasis serves as the driving force behind Simon's method, a constant groping between telling and seeing. Studying the nature and function of ekphrasis thus sheds light on entire sections of a body of work inherently dependent on the gaze for defining ekphrastic objects. The discussion continues with an inquiry into the status of these objects of passage. The textual embodiment of time consequently proves crucial in attempting to move beyond the potentially anecdotal nature of writing and imprint it with the stamp of the universal and the timeless, inevitably sparking fruitful collisions between different temporalities. Reading this work—which draws notably on the thought of Walter Benjamin and Georges Didi-Huberman, and perceives ekphrasis as much more than a mere narrative pause—reveals a system of resonances centered fundamentally around the auratic object.
Yona Hanhart-Marmor is a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A specialist in Claude Simon and Marcel Proust, her research focuses primarily on the intersections between painting and literature.
Ekphrasis, the rhetorical tradition of describing visual art within a literary text, has long served as a focal point for exploring the boundaries between the verbal and the visual. In the context of twentieth-century French literature, this practice often moves beyond simple ornamentation to interrogate the nature of representation itself. By examining how writers translate the stillness of an image into the movement of prose, scholars investigate the tension between the immediate sensory experience of the gaze and the linear progression of narrative. This study engages with these intersections through the specific lens of Claude Simon’s corpus.
The analysis centers on the concept of the auratic object, a term often associated with Walter Benjamin’s reflections on the unique presence of a work of art. By drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Benjamin and Georges Didi-Huberman, the text explores how Simon’s writing navigates the relationship between the descriptive act and the temporal dimensions of the text. The discussion addresses how the gaze functions as a catalyst for writing, shaping it while simultaneously being captured by it. Readers interested in the interplay between visual art and modern narrative structure may find this examination of Simon’s work relevant.