French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Job, Koltès. La rhétorique vive
Theatre and Performance

André Job, Koltès. La rhétorique vive, Paris: Hermann, coll. "Savoirs Lettres", 2009, 136 p.

• ISBN: 9782705668433
• Price: 25 €

Publisher's overview:

Hovering over the entire body of work, In the Solitude of Cotton Fields shines with the fires of rhetoric, tracing the trajectory of bodies and discourse at the dawn of social bonding, desire, and humanity's relationship with the Polis. Koltès rediscovers the ancient model of sophistry to test its tragic efficacy.
This essay explores the meaning and significance of such a return. By intersecting anthropology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and sociology, the analysis performs a salutary coup de force: it shifts the perspective on the work and demonstrates how the twisting of writing seizes upon this supposedly obsolete form to elevate it to the cutting edge of contemporaneity.
The counterfeit of market-driven discourse procedures thus pairs well with an eroticized rhetoric that misses its mark yet uplifts minds and hearts. It is a delicate balance between a "joke" and serious matter, bearing witness to a thoroughly modern manipulation of values.

André Job is an agrégé and holds a State Doctorate (docteur d'État). He taught for many years in preparatory classes (khâgne) and at foreign universities. His research focuses primarily on the work of Giraudoux and the narcissistic imaginary.

Bernard-Marie Koltès remains one of the most distinctive voices in modern French drama, known for plays that merge poetic intensity with stark theatrical confrontation. In In the Solitude of Cotton Fields, his writing engages deeply with the mechanics of dialogue, desire, and social transaction. This study examines how Koltès revives classical sophistry not merely as a stylistic exercise, but as a tragic instrument capable of interrogating contemporary human relations, market forces, and the shifting boundaries between individuals within the modern polis.

Drawing on anthropology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and sociology, André Job situates the playwright at the crossroads of classical heritage and avant-garde innovation. This concise volume will particularly appeal to scholars of modern French theatre, graduate students in literary theory, and directors seeking a deeper philosophical framework for staging Koltès. By bridging ancient rhetorical traditions with twentieth-century anxieties, the analysis offers valuable tools for understanding how dramatic dialogue can simultaneously manipulate and elevate the modern spectator.