French Literature Reviews - 2026
Subject: Ponge
Poetry and Poetics
Edited and introduced by Gérard Farasse
Published with the support of the "Modalités du fictionnel" Research Laboratory at the University of the Littoral Opal Coast
Each of the studies collected in this volume sets out to pose a question to Ponge's work, pretending to believe—or being convinced, depending on the case—that the work will answer it. How is an ending made? Why is it impossible to push aside, into the margins of the work, what Ponge writes about painting? How can the partisanship of things ("le parti pris des choses") return us to the world? What is a signature? In what ways do Ponge's mute objects differ from Roland Barthes's mythological objects?
The ending, painting, the signature, the object: here is a whole palette of critical shades that alternately contrast, juxtapose, and blend. To these tones a final one has been added, through the unreserved transcription of unpublished drafts of "L'Âne" ("The Donkey"), the pages of which are reproduced here in facsimile, driven by the need—as Ponge explains to us—"to lean the painting against something indisputable."
This volume brings together contributions by Philippe Bonnefis, Gérard Farasse, Jacqueline Guittard, Cécile Hayez-Melckenbeeck, and Christiane Vollaire, along with unpublished drafts of "L'Âne" by Francis Ponge.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Philippe BONNEFIS, Comedies of the End
Gérard FARASSE, Painting Taken at Its Word
Christiane VOLLAIRE, The Matter of Things
Cécile HAYEZ-MELCKENBEECK, The Other Sign, from Ponge to Derrida
Jacqueline GUITTARD, Roland Barthes and Talkative Objects
Francis PONGE, « L'Âne » – Manuscript and Transcription
Gérard FARASSE, Scholarly Note on « L'Âne »
Collection "LES AÉRONAUTES DE L'ESPRIT", 178 pages, 14x22.2 cm, paperback, ISBN 2-913764-18-5, 18.00 euros (shipping France: 2.00 euros; other: 5.00 euros).
The volume positions itself within modern French literary studies, engaging closely with the trajectory of twentieth-century poetry and critical theory. Francis Ponge occupies a distinctive place in modern letters through his sustained interrogation of everyday objects, language, and the material world. The essays collected here continue a longstanding tradition of close reading and philosophical inquiry associated with French academic discourse, intersecting with broader critical debates on representation, visual art, and authorship that animated French thought during the latter half of the twentieth century. Readers interested in twentieth-century French poetry, manuscript studies, and the critical reception of Francis Ponge may find this collection a relevant addition to their reading.