In Jacques Reda: Being There, Almost, Aaron Prevots studies the work of this major contemporary French writer since the 1950s-poetry, novels, literary essays, short prose, jazz histories. He particularly examines Reda's explorations of place, including how the 'world's energy' becomes the ideal dancing partner, poetry incarnate in one's arms. Reda embodies 'being there, almost' because he wanders with great wisdom yet renounces any glory in this metaphorical dance. He aligns us with the outer world's rhythms and time's passage. Fleeting waves of perception create a voluptuous, unified whole. In considering the arc of Reda's works from 1952-2015, Aaron Prevots locates a progression from post-Baudelairean flanerie to commemoration of childhood, classical antiquity, fellow writers, jazz, physics, swing, theology, and trains.

The French poet Bernard Vargaftig (1934-2012), first known in 1960s literary circles as a writer mentored by Aragon, published regularly and served on the editorial boards of Action poetique and Europe. His poetry foregrounds identity and alterity, eros and notions of self, an immediate present and an onrushing past. This book examines Vargaftig's evolution and aims. It explores his postwar search for self-acceptance, ontological rootedness and shared forward paths. Using close readings of his poetry and prose, complemented by his comments in interviews, the book particularly considers his emphasis on the sacredness of words. His spiritual yearnings, as well as a need to heal due to lingering trauma from wartime hiding, are shown to underlie his focus on allusive imagery, recurring motifs and compact structures, where silence and sound interweave. Comparative analyses are used to show how his enthusiasm for the female Other attunes us to interpersonal bonds and to the outer world's creative surge. The study of Vargaftig through the lens of gestures toward the sacred thus highlights poetry as a healing ritual, one that facilitates not only immersion in emotion and sensation, but also a continual process of renewal and self-discovery.

Cette premiere monographie consacree a l'oeuvre d'Esther Tellermann met en lumiere, a travers des textes de 1999-2019 dont le lyrisme decentre s'ouvre a l'Autre, un regard novateur sur des realites interieures et exterieures, l'intime du monde, l'Histoire et l'intertextualite. This first book-length study of Esther Tellermann's oeuvre highlights her innovative approach to inner and outer realities, in texts from 1999-2019 whose decentered lyricism foregrounds ritual and reverie while engaging in dialogue with fellow writers.