The Review of Contemporary Fiction

The Tel Quel Reader by Patrick ffrench and Roland-François Lack
Leon S. Roudiez

Patrick ffrench and Roland-François Lack, eds. The Tel Quel Reader. Routledge, 1998. 278 pp. $24.99.

I suppose it is good to have, under one cover, these for the most part previously untranslated items by Kristeva, Goux, Baudry, Foucault, Pleynet, Sollers, Devade, Scarpetta, and Barthes. The Tel Quel Reader thus constitutes a useful supplement to what is already available in English; scholars not fully proficient in French should appreciate it because of the historical momentum of some of its content. On the other hand, some of the same might seem out of date and occasionally arcane to the cultural reader more interested in the broader scene and who has by now made up his or her mind concerning the impact of Freud or Marx on that scene. As for Sade or Bataille, they are not in the forefront of an Anglophone reader’s preoccupations: that is where the TQ Reader should prove most useful to a wider audience.
Granted, putting together a TQ anthology is no easy task. Inevitably (and unfortunately) one is restricted to what originally came out in TQ. There was, however, no discontinuity between TQ and its successor L’Infini (still going strong as of the summer of 1998). Actually, as the editors recognize in their introduction, there was plenty of discontinuity within TQ itself. The difference between the two reviews is, in large part, one of cultural context and image (or myth, if one prefers).
Next comes the daunting chore of choosing from nearly one hundred issues. Include only those items written by members of the editorial committee? Select the most controversial ones? Emphasize the better-known personalities? The editors, it seems, adopted a composite solution. It does favor Kristeva, who has been allotted nearly one fourth of the anthology even though she is abundantly translated (and deservedly so); it slights Sollers, who has not been translated as much and who, after all, has been the driving force of TQ (and of L’Infini as well)—all he gets here is his presentation of his novel Paradis that has already appeared in English (and less briefly) both in TQ and TriQuarterly. But there were many controversial, provocative pieces of his in TQ that could have been included along with others by dissidents like Ricardou and Faye. The years of TQ were lively, exciting ones; I only regret that this Reader, serviceable as it may be, doesn’t have a bit more sparkle. [Leon S. Roudiez]


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction The Tel Quel Reader by Patrick ffrench and Roland-François Lack Leon S. Roudiez Patrick ffrench and Roland-François Lack, eds. The Tel Quel Reader. Routledge, 1998. 278 pp. $24.99. I suppose it is good to have, under one cover, these for the most part previously untranslated items by Kristeva, Goux, Baudry, Foucault, Pleynet, Sollers, Devade, Scarpetta, and Barthes. The Tel Quel Reader thus constitutes a useful supplement to what is already available in English; scholars not fully proficient in French should appreciate it because of the historical momentum of some of its content. On the other hand, some of the same might seem out of date and occasionally arcane to the cultural reader more interested in the broader scene and who has by now made up his or her mind concerning the impact of Freud or Marx on that scene. As for Sade or Bataille, they are not in the forefront of an Anglophone reader’s preoccupations: that is where the TQ Reader should prove most useful to a wider audience. Granted, putting together a TQ anthology is no easy task. Inevitably (and unfortunately) one is restricted to what originally came out in TQ. There was, however, no discontinuity between TQ and its successor L’Infini (still going strong as of the summer of 1998). Actually, as the editors recognize in their introduction, there was plenty of discontinuity within TQ itself. The difference between the two reviews is, in large part, one of cultural context and image (or myth, if one prefers). Next comes the daunting chore of choosing from nearly one hundred issues. Include only those items written by members of the editorial committee? Select the most controversial ones? Emphasize the better-known personalities? The editors, it seems, adopted a composite solution. It does favor Kristeva, who has been allotted nearly one fourth of the anthology even though she is abundantly translated (and deservedly so); it slights Sollers, who has not been translated as much and who, after all, has been the driving force of TQ (and of L’Infini as well)—all he gets here is his presentation of his novel Paradis that has already appeared in English (and less briefly) both in TQ and TriQuarterly. But there were many controversial, provocative pieces of his in TQ that could have been included along with others by dissidents like Ricardou and Faye. The years of TQ were lively, exciting ones; I only regret that this Reader, serviceable as it may be, doesn’t have a bit more sparkle. [Leon S. Roudiez]

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