French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Bayle, La Beauté en partage. Essai sur la poésie de René Char
Poetry and Poetics
Review published in Acta Fabula (Aug.-Sept. 2021, vol. 22, no. 7): Nicolas Murena, "The poetry of René Char: between a clear-eyed view of the world & a quest for elevation".
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La Beauté en partage. Essai sur la poésie de René Char
Corinne Bayle
Hermann, 2021
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260 p.
30 EUR
ISBN:9791037006912
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Beauty is the constant theme of René Char's poetry. This body of work, which has steadily gained readers and passionate advocates, has now achieved classic status. Its unfamiliarity is fading, while its essential dimension of struggle and risk recedes into the background. Challenging any consensus-driven reading, this study focuses on the thrill elicited by poems that celebrate beauty and track its fading traces just as they are about to vanish. This essay celebrates poetry as a vital breath of fresh air, rejecting the contemporary denial of all greatness. Tracing the major trajectories of Char's oeuvre, it explores its key themes and evokes the poet's guiding figures. Re-reading the emblematic poems of hope and the quest for splendor, this book pays tribute to the unexpected uprising and the joyful leap of the heart inspired by the affirmation of art's shared destiny—at a time when our present age has forgotten its disruptive power.
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An article about this book can be read on nonfiction.fr:
The study of modern French poetry often engages with the tension between aesthetic elevation and historical reality. René Char's work occupies a distinctive place in this tradition, frequently associated with mid-century poetic movements that confronted political crisis and existential risk through lyrical intensity. Literary scholarship on Char has long debated the relationship between his engagement in the Resistance and the metaphysical dimensions of his verse. Within this broader critical context, essays addressing his oeuvre typically navigate the delicate balance between his lyricism and his philosophical orientation toward the world.
Corinne Bayle examines the central theme of beauty across Char's major poetic trajectories, exploring his guiding figures and emblematic poems of hope. The study highlights the poet's affirmation of art's shared destiny and challenges consensus-driven readings that overlook the underlying sense of struggle. Readers interested in twentieth-century French poetry and the reception of René Char may find this volume relevant to their inquiries.
"René Char in Pursuit of the Infinite", by Émilie Dhérin (online September 1, 2021)