French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Godfroy, Dance and Poetry: The Fold of Movement in Writing. Michaux, Celan, du Bouchet, Noël
Poetry and Poetics
Review published in Acta Fabula (January 2017, vol. 18, no. 1): "Dancing bodies, writing bodies " by Marie-Pierre Tachet.
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Alice Godfroy, Dance and Poetry: The Fold of Movement in Writing. Michaux, Celan, du Bouchet, Noël
Paris: Honoré Champion, "Bibliothèque de littérature générale et comparée" series, 2015.
EAN 9782745329882.
352 pp.
Price: 45 EUR
Publisher's Description:
Where is dance to be found in poetry? This question has been framed in new terms since the mid-20th century: the figure of the dancer, which had so recently fascinated, deserts poems at the very paradoxical point where they pursue the modern project of rearticulating language from the body.
This study engages with poets—Henri Michaux, Paul Celan, André du Bouchet, and Bernard Noël—who no longer speak of dance. Yet dance runs through their works. Beneath the thematic silence paradoxically attached to it, it reveals the quest for a more elemental form of convergence: that of poetry, gesture, and movement.
Alice Godfroy holds an agrégation in Modern Literature, has a PhD in Comparative Literature, and teaches at the University of Strasbourg. She balances a career as both a dancer and a movement educator.
Alice Godfroy examines how mid-twentieth-century modern poetry reimagines the relationship between language and physical movement. Even as the explicit figure of the dancer disappears from the page, these texts pursue a deeper convergence between poetic writing and bodily gesture. The study focuses on four major writers—Henri Michaux, Paul Celan, André du Bouchet, and Bernard Noël—whose works reveal an unspoken yet persistent choreography. By investigating this underlying movement, the book offers fresh insight into how contemporary literature seeks to articulate physical presence through innovative structures of writing.
Drawing on her dual background in comparative literature and professional dance, the author brings a unique perspective to the poetics of movement. This rigorous comparative study will particularly engage scholars, students, and readers interested in modern poetry, interdisciplinary artistic practices, and the intersections between the humanities and the performing arts. It serves as a valuable resource for anyone exploring how modern texts register the dynamics of the living body without relying on traditional thematic representations of dance.
Table of Contents (PDF)