French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Bouloumié (ed.), Dictionnaire Michel Tournier
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
Dictionnaire Michel Tournier
Edited and with a preface by Arlette Bouloumié
Honoré Champion, "Dictionnaires et références" series, 2019
*
EAN13 : 9782745352002.
456 pages
70 EUR
*
Publisher's overview:
An international collaborative work, the Dictionnaire Michel Tournier features 323 entries providing an analytical overview of the work and intellectual profile of the author (1924–2016). Born in Paris, trained as a philosopher, and deeply influenced by the Germanic world, he turned to literature relatively late in life after spending years in publishing, radio, and television. His writing revitalizes the novelistic form—blending realism and fantasy—and decodes the contemporary world through the lens of myths with metaphysical resonance. A seasoned traveler fascinated by Eastern civilizations (Japan, India), Africa, Canada, and photography (he was a founder of the Rencontres d'Arles international photography festival), his perspective on the world, tinged with humor, possesses a universal scope that challenges conventional thinking and upends received ideas.
Arlette Bouloumié, general editor of the Dictionnaire Tournier, is Professor Emeritus of Contemporary French Literature at the University of Angers. She edited the volume Michel Tournier, Romans suivis de Le Vent Paraclet in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade series, published in 2017. She has authored numerous essays, articles, and edited volumes dedicated to the work of Michel Tournier and his correspondence with his German friend Hellmut Waller.
Michel Tournier occupies a distinctive place in modern French literature, bridging traditional narrative structures and philosophical inquiry. Emerging from a background in philosophy and journalism, his works such as Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique and Le Roi des Aulnes reinvent canonical myths for contemporary readers. His fiction navigates the interplay between realism and fantasy, engaging deeply with European intellectual traditions, the Germanic cultural sphere, and the visual arts, particularly photography. This comprehensive volume maps out those complex artistic intersections through detailed thematic and critical entries.
Edited by Arlette Bouloumié, a leading scholar of contemporary French literature and the author of critical editions in the prestigious Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, this reference tool serves scholars, students, and admirers of Tournier. It provides rigorous analytical keys to decode the recurrent motifs of his oeuvre, from his fascination with foreign civilizations to his subversive use of folklore. By contextualizing his intellectual trajectory from 1924 to 2016, the dictionary illuminates how a singular narrative voice continuously challenged conventional perceptions of humanity, myth, and modernity.