French Literature Reviews - 2026

Y. J.-B. Moraly, L’Œuvre impossible. Claudel, Genet, Fellini
Other Literary Studies

Yehuda Jean-Bernard Moraly, L’Œuvre impossible. Claudel, Genet, Fellini

Paris: Éditions Le Manuscrit, coll. "L’Esprit des Lettres", 2013.

EAN 9782304042344 (print book)

EAN 9782304042351 (digital book)

Publisher's overview:

Every artist harbors an "impossible work"—revised, abandoned, forever out of reach, yet relentlessly contemplated. This volume presents three drafts left unfinished by three of the 20th century's greatest and most prolific artists. For a long time, Claudel sought to write a piece in which Christianity would engage in a dialogue with Judaism. This project lives on in a fascinating draft, On répète Tête d’or (1949), where prisoners in a World War II camp rehearse the play Tête d’or, and in which Jesus Christ ("the Son of the Dove") confronts the "Jewish waiter" (the Synagogue). Genet spent years working on La Mort, eventually publishing Fragments from it in 1954. Several previously unpublished drafts (Les Folles, Peur de mourir) are tied to this grand project, which was ultimately destroyed. Meanwhile, the aborted filming of Il Viaggio di G. Mastorna—a journey to the land of the dead—has passed into legend. Fellini wrote a screenplay but abandoned its shooting, returning to the project repeatedly without ever managing to bring it to fruition. Yet it may well be that these texts, fragmentary though they are, offer the most penetrating insight into the oeuvres of Claudel, Genet, and Fellini. Fragmentary, you say? Could there be a fundamental link between the impossible work and the rest of their corpus, one illuminated in a wholly new light by these phantom projects? Might every work of art be, at its core, impossible?

The concept of the impossible work addresses the tension between an artist's creative ambition and the limitations inherent in realization. By focusing on the drafts and aborted projects of Paul Claudel, Jean Genet, and Federico Fellini, this volume examines how abandoned texts and films remain central to an author's legacy. Readers interested in the creative process and the study of artistic intent may find this investigation relevant.

The works discussed include Claudel’s draft On répète Tête d’or, Genet’s project La Mort, and Fellini’s unfilmed screenplay Il Viaggio di G. Mastorna. These examples highlight how fragmentary remains can offer insight into a broader body of work. The text invites reflection on whether the core of artistic production is defined by completed works or by the phantom projects that haunt an artist's career.