Literature, Art and the Pursuit of Decay in Twentieth-Century France

Mathews examines work by writers and painters working in France in the twentieth century.

Timothy Mathews (Author)

9780521419703, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 January 2001

248 pages, 22 b/w illus.
24.4 x 17 x 1.6 cm, 0.6 kg

'… elegant and stimulating essays …'. Journal of European Studies

In Literature, Art and the Pursuit of Decay, Timothy Mathews examines work by a range of writers and painters working in France in the twentieth century. The well-illustrated book engages with canonical figures - Guillaume Apollinaire, Marguerite Duras and Jean Genet, Roland Barthes, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte - as well as more neglected individuals including Robert Desnos and Jean Fautrier. Mathews draws on psychoanalysis, existentialism and poststructuralism to show how both literature and fine art promote the value of generosity in a culture of anxiety and intolerance. Decay emerges as a surprising ally in this quest because of its ability to undermine intellectual complacency and egoism. Integrating theoretical and material approaches to reading and viewing, Mathews engages with the distinctive features of different literary genres and different types of painting to develop an original history of artistic ambition in twentieth-century France.

Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Prologue: form and decay
1. Looking and loving: Harlequins in Apollinaire and Picasso
2. Signs and the imaginary: the pleasures of discontent in Roland Barthes
3. Dreams, schemes and wordplay: the surrealism of Robert Desnos
4. Sterility and power: on some paintings by René Magritte
5. The offerings of decay: Jean Fautrier, Les Otages
6. Clothed intimacy: theatre and sex in Marguerite Duras, Les Yeux Bleus Cheveux Noirs
7. 'Des Milliers de Parisiens': conflict, community and collapse in Jean Genet, Les Paravents
Epilogue
List of works consulted
List of illustrations
Index.

Subject Areas: Psychoanalytical theory [Freudian psychology JMAF], Phenomenology & Existentialism [HPCF3], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH], Literary studies: general [DSB], History of art & design styles: from c 1900 - [ACX]