French Literature Reviews - 2026
The Child in Céline. Proceedings of the 20th International Louis-Ferdinand Céline Colloquium
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs
The Child in Céline. Proceedings of the 20th International Louis-Ferdinand Céline Colloquium, Paris, Société d’études céliniennes, 2016, 254 p.
ISBN: 2-931193-27-7
Price: 20 €
From the death of Bébert in Journey to the End of the Night to the group of disabled children cared for by the doctor-writer in Rigodon, and from the narrator's youth recounted in Death on Credit to the reflections on education in Mea Culpa / Bagatelles pour un massacre [Note: 'Beaux draps'], childhood stands at the very heart of Céline's work.
The papers collected in this volume examine every aspect of this representation and highlight the influence of this imaginary world on the evolution of Céline's writing, both poetically and ideologically.
Table of Contents
Ana Maria ALVES, "Childhood Memory in Death on Credit: The Grandmother's Death", p. 11-21.
Anne BAUDART, "Céline and Fellini: The Visionary Childhood", p. 23-35.
Johanne BENARD, "Reading Shakespeare in Guignol's Band: Child's Play?", p. 37-57.
Isabelle BLONDIAUX, "The Dance of Words or Ferdinand's Strange Malady", p. 59-79.
Émile BRAMI, "The Child as a Political Stake in Bagatelles pour un massacre", p. 83-95.
Véronique FLAMBARD-WEISBART, "On Ferdinand's Education and Its Traces in His Work", p. 97-109.
François GIBAULT, "Céline Through the Morand / Chardonne Correspondence", p. 111-126.
Pascal IFRI, "School in Céline's Work: From Death on Credit to Bagatelles pour un massacre", p. 129-145.
François-Xavier LAVENNE, "Childhood, Our Only Salvation: Céline's Counter-Educational Utopias", p. 147-163.
Florence de MEREDIEU, "Artaud / Céline Intersecting Destinies: The 'Continued War'", p. 165-179.
Pierre-Marie MIROUX, "Bébert and Bébert", p. 181-192.
Bianca ROMANIUC-BOULARAND, "Literal Hide-and-Seek Games in Journey to the End of the Night", p. 195-213.
Christine SAUTERMEISTER, "Between Apocalypse and Utopia: Scenes Involving Children in the German Trilogy", p. 215-229.
Anne SEBA-COLLETT, "Céline: From Abject Childhood Toward a Poetics of Destitution and Emptiness", p. 231-247.
The figure of the child occupies a complex position within the broader landscape of twentieth-century French literature, often serving as a lens through which authors examine memory, trauma, and societal decay. In the work of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, childhood is a recurring motif that intersects with his stylistic innovations and ideological shifts. By tracing these representations from Journey to the End of the Night to the later German Trilogy, the contributors to this collection examine how the image of the child informs the development of Céline's writing.
These essays investigate how childhood functions as a narrative device and a site of inquiry, touching upon themes such as education, memory, and the interplay between reality and the imaginary. The collection examines specific instances of childhood, ranging from the narrator's youth in Death on Credit to the role of children in his polemical texts. Readers interested in the intersection of aesthetics and ideology within the modernist tradition may find this examination of the author's recurring preoccupation with the child relevant.