French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Fondane, Between Philosophy and Literature
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Bibliographic reference: Benjamin Fondane, Entre philosophie et littérature. Textes réunis par Monique Jutrin, Parole et Silence, 2015, 2015. EAN13: 9782889185566.
Benjamin Fondane had contemplated collecting his articles into a volume, as he recalled in his literary testament written in Drancy. Therefore, by gathering these scattered texts alongside previously unpublished works, we feel as though we are fulfilling a wish of the author.
If these writings from the 1920s and 1930s still appeal to today's reader, it is because Fondane actively engaged in the major debates of his era—literary, philosophical, and ideological alike: concerning Dada and surrealism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, the links between poetry and metaphysics, and the readings of Rimbaud or Lautréamont, to name just a few subjects.
A great number of articles presented as reviews are, in reality, polemical texts where Fondane grapples with an author or an idea. Right from the start, we sense that he is tracking something, that he is on the lookout, and his diagnosis is frequently unsparing. He holds a grudge against those who wish to reach conclusions at all costs and claim to resolve contradictions, and he lambasts those who attempt to measure art using crude schemas or weigh it against established systems. This is always a deeply committed reading, often subtly magnetized by the thought of Lev Shestov.
Fondane follows Nietzsche's precepts, for whom the art of reading lies in the faculty of rumination: transforming another's text to nourish oneself with it and turn it into one's own material. Upon closing this book, the reader remains deeply impressed by the author's vast range of knowledge across such diverse fields. But above all, what imprints itself upon them is the voice of this singular reader, to whom nothing is indifferent, and the incisive gaze of one who misses nothing.
Benjamin Fondane, born November 14, 1898, in Iași, Romania, and died October 2 or 3, 1944, in a gas chamber at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, was a Romanian-Jewish philosopher, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic, filmmaker, and translator. He was naturalized as a French citizen in 1938 and wrote primarily in French.
Monique Jutrin is president of the Société d'Études Benjamin Fondane and director of the Cahiers Benjamin Fondane.
Table of Contents
Foreword
I Around Dada and Surrealism
From Dada to Surrealism
The Significance of Dada
Louis Aragon or Le Paysan de Paris
Paul Éluard: Capitale de la douleur
Revolution and Intellectuals
Pierre Reverdy
The Grand Ballet of French Poetry
Pure Poetry: From Paul Valéry to Tristan Tzara
Frontières humaines, by Ribemont-Dessaignes
Le comte de Lautréamont et Dieu, by Léon-Pierre Quint
II Poetry and Philosophy
The Unhappy Consciousness
Poetry and Metaphysics
German Romanticism
La littérature à la lumière du matérialisme historique, by Marc Ickovicz
Psychoanalysis of Edgar Allan Poe
Romania: Perspective and Selection by a Writer Happy to Be Partial
Ulysse dans la cité, by Ilarie Voronca
Notes on Poetic Translation
Wartime Poetry?
Writing on Poetry 33-43
III Theatre
Romania: A Century of Theatre
Right You Are (If You Think So) at the Atelier
Jean Cocteau
Open Letter to Antonin Artaud on the Théâtre Alfred-Jarry
IV Miscellany
False Concepts of Classical Art
Autonomous Art: Proust
Gogol, by Boris de Schloezer
The Last Days, by Raymond Queneau
Pérégrinations asiatiques, by I. de Manziarly
Essai sur la création artistique, by Liviu Rusu
Index of Names
Bibliography
This volume gathers articles and unpublished texts written during the 1920s and 1930s by Benjamin Fondane, fulfilling a wish expressed in the author's literary testament. Edited by Monique Jutrin, the collection reflects Fondane's active engagement with the major intellectual and artistic debates of his era, spanning literary criticism, philosophy, and ideological currents. The texts capture his critical encounters with movements such as Dada and surrealism, as well as his reflections on Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the relationship between poetry and metaphysics.
Readers interested in 20th-century intellectual history, European modernism, and the intersection of poetry and philosophy may find this collection relevant. Benjamin Fondane, born November 14, 1898, in Iași, Romania, and died October 2 or 3, 1944, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was a Romanian-Jewish philosopher, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic, filmmaker, and translator who was naturalized as a French citizen in 1938 and wrote primarily in French. The writings demonstrate Fondane's wide-ranging knowledge and his critical approach to authors and ideas, shaped in part by the influence of thinkers like Lev Shestov and Friedrich Nietzsche.