French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Mounic, L’Esprit du récit ou la chair du devenir. Éthique et création littéraire
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Anne Mounic, L’Esprit du récit ou la chair du devenir. Éthique et création littéraire
Paris: Honoré Champion, coll. "Bibliothèque de littérature générale et comparée, 112", 2013
EAN 9782745325211
592 p.
Price: 110 EUR
Publisher's overview:
The spirit of narrative, shaping time, ensures the continuity of being and its transcendence within the flow of becoming and community. Through the study of diverse works—from Shakespeare to Albert Camus, Claude Vigée, and Juan Gelman, alongside Milton, Blake, Melville (Billy Budd), Emily Dickinson, Kafka, Marguerite Audoux, Etty Hillesum, Hélène Berr, and Borchert, without overlooking artistic creation as seen in Henry Moore's drawings—the author of this volume aims to highlight how the singular voice, through storytelling and its figures, weaves its modulations across time. Giving flesh to its metamorphoses and fostering the empathy evoked by the work, it explores the apprenticeship in freedom and the Open within the communion of I and Thou.
Anne Mounic, senior lecturer at Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, is the author of several critical studies on poetic thought, including Jacob ou l’être du possible (Caractères, 2009) and Monde terrible où naître : La voix singulière face à l’Histoire (Honoré Champion, 2011). Her latest poetry collection, Tout près du ciel, les robes folles, was published in 2012 (Anagrammes), followed by La caresse du vertige (Caractères, Autumn 2012).
Anne Mounic's study situates itself within the field of ethical literary criticism and comparative literature, exploring how narrative acts as a vehicle for human empathy and existential continuity. By drawing on Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy of I and Thou, the work examines how the singular voice of the author engages with the reader across different historical moments. Mounic bridges the gap between poetic thought and narrative ethics, tracing these connections through a vast corpus of European and American writers, from William Shakespeare and John Milton to Albert Camus and Franz Kafka.
This volume addresses fundamental questions about how literature responds to historical trauma and the flow of time, particularly through the lens of personal testimony and artistic creation. It will be highly useful to scholars and students of comparative literature, literary theory, and philosophical aesthetics who are interested in the ethical dimensions of storytelling. By analyzing diverse figures such as Emily Dickinson, Etty Hillesum, and Claude Vigée, Mounic demonstrates how creative expression fosters an apprenticeship in freedom and opens up new possibilities for human connection.