New publication: Les interdits de la représentation
François Hugonnier’s bilingual book Les interdits de la représentation. Paul Auster, Jerome Rothenberg was published by Editions Otrante in October 2022 (647 p.) It explores Paul Auster’s entire body of work in the broader context of American poetry and literature, and the historical events of WW2, 1968 and 9/11.
Beyond Postmodernism, it traces Paul Auster's Jewish and European roots in order to understand his unique take on representation. Scrutinizing the inadequacy of language and the biblical interdiction of making images found in his early poems and essays (on Charles Reznikoff, Edmond Jabès, Paul Celan), it reveals the move towards prose and desubjectivation (2nd and 3rdperson), which gradually made space for the writing of trauma and the articulation of testimony in his fiction and non-fiction texts. Auster and his characters’ concern with the shining possibilities and limitations of the act of writing is at the heart of this volume.