Euphemising Politics, or the Literary History of the Esprit

Finding himself in a new city during the quarantine, the author offers a reexamination of local cultural mythology and a cursory mapping of those contexts made available to him within walking distance. In the case of the Marseille district of the Vieux Port, this turns out to be the quarter where Walter Benjamin wrote several essays. These include, in particular, “Hashish in Marseille” written, so to speak, hot on the heels of a walk through the same quarter. During an exercise in local literary lore, a decision was made to keep bibliographic notes from this area, the cycle of which is titled “Self-Storage Unit”. The first “storage unit”, in the very first report from the Marseille Alcazar library, becomes the almost legendary journal Esprit. In the recent summer 2021 issue, entitled “The Politics of Literature”, the author Michel Murat analyses the journal’s own history in its relation to literary circles and post-War French history. As one of the stakes of the “politics of literature”, the circulation of Roland Barthes’ concept of “white writing” (écriture blanche) is analysed. Another publication, by Giselle Sapiro, examines the history of the concept of the engaged writer, as well as the models of institutional and rhetorical behaviour that oppose it. From concepts of aesthetes, notables, avants-garde and polemicists, the author of the review attempts to select those that may be relevant to the subject of our national of literature from the same period.

1. Arseniev P. Gde futurizm zimuet, ili Kogda iskusstvo oborachivaetsya knigoi [Where Futurism Hibernates, or When Art Turns Into a Book]. Arterritory, March 23, 2021. URL: http://arterritory.com/ru/vizualnoe_iskusstvo/stati/476-gde_futurizm_zimuet.

2. Arseniev P. Logika i tekhnologiya pis’ma [Logic and Technology of Writing].

3. Gor’kii [Gorky], October 19, 2019. URL: http://gorky.media/reviews/inaya-logika-pisma-poeticheskaya-motorika-arkadiya-dragomoshhenko/.

4. Barthes R. Nulevaya stepen’ pis’ma [Le degré zéro de l’écriture], Moscow, Akademicheskii proekt, 2008.

5. Benjamin W. Uchenie o podobii. Mediaesteticheskie proizvedeniya [Doctrine of the Similar. Mediaesthetic Works], Moscow, RSUH, 2012, pp. 133–161. 1933, vol. 2, pp. 213–219. URL: http://atlasofplaces.com/essays/experience-and-poverty.

6. Benjamin W. Gashish v Marsele [Haschisch in Marseille]. Ozareniya [Beleuchtungen], Moscow, Martis, 2000.

7. Benjamin W. Moskovskii dnevnik [Moskauer Tagebuch], Moscow, Ad Marginem, 1997.

8. Cayrol J. D’un romanesque concentrationnaire. Esprit, septembre 1949. URL: https://esprit.presse.fr/article/cayrol-jean/d-un-romanesque-concentrationnaire-29393.

9. Domenach J.-M. Le système et la personne. Esprit, mai 1967, no. 360. URL: https://esprit.presse.fr/tous-les-numeros/structuralismes-ideologie-et-methode/350.

10. Esprit. Juillet-Août 1958, no. 332. URL: https://esprit.presse.fr/tous-les-numeros/le-nouveau-roman/332.

11. Esprit. Juillet-Août 2021, no. 476. URL: https://esprit.presse.fr/tous-les-numeros/politiques-de-la-litterature/.

12. Ivanov A., Vileykis A. Val’ter Ben’yamin: filosof na izmene [Walter Benjamin: Philosopher Freaking Out]. Nozh [Knife], July 12, 2012. URL: http://knife.media/benjamin/.

13. Lachmann R. Demontazh krasnorechiya. Ritoricheskaya traditsiya i ponyatie poeticheskogo [Die Zerstörung der schönen Rede. Rhetorische Tradition und Konzepte des Poetischen], Moscow, Akademicheskii proekt, 2001.

14. Mallarmé S. The Impressionists and Edouard Manet. Œuvres complètes: En 2 vols (ed. B. Marchal), Paris, Gallimard, Pléiade, 2003, vol. 2, pp. 444–470.

15. Murat M. Les engagements littéraires d’Esprit. Esprit, Juillet-Août 2021, no. 476. URL: http://esprit.presse.fr/article/michel-murat/les-engagements-litterairesd-esprit-43450.

16. Rancière J. Razdelyaya chuvstvennoe [Le partage du sensible], Saint Petersburg, EUSPb, 2007.

17. Sapiro G. Les métamorphoses de l’écrivain engagé. Esprit, Juillet-Août 2021, no. 476. URL: http://esprit.presse.fr/article/gisele-sapiro/les-metamorphoses-de-l-ecrivain-engage-43452.

18. Vdovin A. Kontsept “glava literatury” v russkoi kritike 1830–1860-kh godov, Tartu, Tartu University Press, 2011.