The Book and Its Spaces - Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

French Literature Reviews - 2026

The Book and Its Spaces
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Just published

THE BOOK AND ITS SPACES edited by A. Milon and M. Perelman

Back cover

The book cannot be reduced to its physical medium. Here, the understanding of the book is linked to the dialectical interplay of two seemingly distant terms: “book” and “space.”
Our intention is not to map out every possible space of the book, whether physical, aesthetic, literary, metaphorical, or anthropological. Rather, our aim is to invite the reader on a journey across space within the book—the page, the text...—, space for the book—the library, the collection...—, and space beyond the book—the work of art, the hypertext...
The utopian book in Lévinas, Blanchot, or Deleuze; the plastic poetry of Mallarmé, Apollinaire, or Claudel; the literary narrative of Kundera, Le Clézio, or Perec; and the pictorial space of Matisse, Kandinsky, or Gris will serve as milestones for better measuring the vast expanse of these infinite spaces that the book invents.

Format 19 × 25 cm, 700 pages, hardcover, illustrated, 35 €
ISBN-10: 2840160048
ISBN-13: 978-2840160045

Table of Contents

Alain Milon: The Ajar Opening of Multiple Spaces

Part One
The Reflexive Apparatus of the Book: Page, Text, and Subject

Llewellyn Brown, The Space of the Book, the Space of the Subject
Carlos Carreto, Topic and Utopia of the Book in the Middle Ages: The (Im)possible Text
Anne Reach-Ngô, From the Space of the Book to the Space of the Work: The Consecration of the Literary Fact in the Renaissance
Trong Tran, The Image in the Visual and Textual Space of Renaissance Illustrated Narratives: Morphology of the Book, Topography of the Text, and Reading Pathways
Catherine Guillot, Liminal Space of the 17th-Century Theatre Book and the Space of the Frontispiece
Hélène Campaignolle-Catel, Reflections/Refractions in Derrida's Glas and Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus
Valérie Lelièvre, The Page: Between Text and Book
Alain Milon, “Rescuing the Text from Its Misfortune as a Book?”

Part Two
The Plastic Space of the Book: Poetry, Painting, Photography

François Warin and Daniel Roth, Deleatur
Michel Truffet, The Event-Space of Plastic Poetry
Brigitte Ouvry-Vial, The Space of Footnotes in Henri Michaux, or the Inscription of Experimental Knowledge
Laurie Viala, Illustration as an Opening in the Page Toward Realms Beyond the Text: A Study of Jacques Tardi's Adaptation of Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Ivanne Rialland, The Book as a Space of Absorption: Homogenization Processes in the Artist's Book
Michel Porchet, The Space-Time of the Photobook
Olivier Bessard-Banquy, The Book Between Black and White: The Space of the Printed Page
Olessia Koudriavsteva, The Plastic Space of the Book: Around Matisse's Jazz

Part Three
Around Spaces of Writing: Selected Readings

Adeline Richard: Representing the Infinite: The Space of the Book in 13th-Century Prose Cycles Through Tristan and Lancelot
Jérôme Hennebert: The Poetry Book and Its Fragmentation: Lorand Gaspar's Sol absolu
Frédéric Yvan: Circonfigurations Around Georges Perec's Species of Spaces and Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves
Daniela Panosetti: The Literary Text as an Ambiguous Space: Topological Identity, “Black Holes,” and “Restless” Aesthetic Experience in the Work of Perec and Calvino
Isabelle Chol: The Metamorphoses of Poetic Space: Around Pierre Reverdy
Ilaria Vitali: The Cubic Book: Metafictional Stakes and Critical Self-Commentaries in Kundera
Jean-Marie Kouakou: Around Le Clézio's Fugues
Catherine Morency: The Workshop of L'âge de la parole: Roland Giguère's Dialogic Practice of the Collection
Dervila Cooke: Strolling and Constraints: Textual Walks in Jacques Réda's Les Ruines de Paris and Le Méridien de Paris

Part Four
Anthropological Spaces Within and Beyond the Book

Marc Perelman: An Anthropological Question: The Book as Space
D. J. M. Soulas de Russel: Book and Possession: An Annotated Presentation of the Typological Behaviors of P.-L. Courier and Marquis Taccone
Raymond Delambre: Between Crystal Palace and Living Room: The Library
Nadia Seffouh: The Space of the Collection
Nathalie Pineau-Farge: Bookish Space, Architectural Space, and Reliquary Book: Around Henri-Alexandre Wallon's Saint Louis
Estelle Riquois, The Urban Space of the French Noir Novel
Eloi Le Mouel: The Book as Space in Action
Xavier Sense: The Interactive Book as an Assembled Space
Anca Gata, The Space of the Book and the Space of the Work: Argumentative Dissociation as the Architectonic of Literary Space
Kheira Benhamouda: The Textbook: The Hyperstructure of a Space for Pedagogical Hospitality

Marc Perelman: Towards the Implementation of a Book/Space Dialectical Intelligibility

Notes on Contributors
Bibliography of Cited Works
Index

The study of the book as a spatial entity has long engaged scholars of literature and philosophy, moving beyond the codex as a mere physical medium. The Book and Its Spaces, edited by A. Milon and M. Perelman, explores the book through the interplay of book and space, including the page, the library, and the work of art. Readers interested in the intersection of bibliography, philosophy, and visual arts may find the diverse perspectives on the page and the library relevant.

This collection examines how the book functions as a space for the text, a space for the reader, and a space that extends into the work of art or the hypertext. By analyzing authors like Mallarmé, Perec, and Kundera alongside visual artists such as Matisse and Kandinsky, the volume considers the topography of reading and the architecture of the printed page. These investigations touch upon the historical evolution of the book, from medieval manuscripts and Renaissance narratives to contemporary photobooks and interactive digital forms.