French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Buchs, Le Déjeu d'Alexandre Voisard
Other Literary Studies
Le Déjeu d'Alexandre Voisard
Arnaud Buchs
Infolio, Le cippe, 2020
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120 p.
15 CHF
ISBN : 9782884743310
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DESCRIPTION :
Alexandre Voisard’s work immediately strikes the reader with its extraordinary variety: alongside poetry, the novel blends with notebooks and journals, and drawings even converse with the most diverse prose forms. Yet his writing, whatever path it takes, always rings true; it is defined by a singular voice entirely its own, going straight to the core: the pursuit of a precise balance between the subject and its object. Alexandre Voisard’s writing is therefore above all a spoken voice, the embodiment of a person within the word. Thus, this work is perhaps fundamentally poetic, if we understand poetry less as a strict adherence to a specific form than as an unwavering commitment to reconciling aesthetics and ethics. Alexandre Voisard is the poet of Liberté à l’aube (1967) – but not only that, and it would be a mistake to reduce his work to this landmark text, which remains merely a milestone in a perpetually evolving literary journey. Le Déjeu (1997) marks another equally significant milestone, in which the poet takes stock of his creative path.
Arnaud Buchs was born in 1971 in Porrentruy, in the Swiss Jura. After studying literature in Lausanne and at Paris VIII, he taught French language and literature at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and the University of Zurich. He currently holds a position as senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Lausanne. He dedicated his doctoral dissertation to the work of Yves Bonnefoy and has conducted research in contemporary poetry, literary theory, and aesthetics. His notable publications with Éditions Galilée include Yves Bonnefoy à l’horizon du surréalisme (2005) and Une pensée en mouvement. Trois essais sur Yves Bonnefoy (2008), and with Éditions Hermann, Écrire le regard. L’esthétique de la modernité en question (2010), in which he explores the intersection of poetics and aesthetics, particularly in the works of Diderot and Baudelaire. His most recent book is Diderot et la peinture (Galilée, 2015).
This critical study examines the multifaceted literary output of Alexandre Voisard, a central figure in Swiss literature best known for his poetry and prose. Arnaud Buchs analyzes how Voisard balances subject and object, maintaining an ethical and aesthetic commitment across various genres including novels, journals, and drawings. Rather than reducing the author to his landmark 1967 text Liberté à l aube, the volume highlights later milestones such as Le Déjeu, offering a nuanced perspective on a perpetually evolving creative journey that bridges personal voice and universal human experience.
Authored by Swiss scholar and University of Lausanne senior lecturer Arnaud Buchs, the book benefits from extensive expertise in contemporary poetry, aesthetics, and literary theory. Buchs, who has previously published widely on writers and thinkers such as Yves Bonnefoy, Denis Diderot, and Charles Baudelaire, brings a rigorous academic background to this engagement with modern French-language writing. This volume serves as a valuable resource for students, researchers, and readers interested in modern poetry, Swiss literature, and the intricate relationship between literary form and philosophical reflection.