In his theory of gesture and montage, Giorgio Agamben argues that the element of cinema is gesture and not image. Cinema is the exemplary medium for capturing and evoking the moment at which humans have lost control of their gestures. The gesture is a particular type of action: it involves movement, but it also appears as a moment of action. What has this got to do with cinematic montage? The power of the montage is to reveal the potential of the image and transform it back into gesture. Both gestures and montage leave us in the realm of mediality. We discover how this process releases what has been frozen in the image. It is this theory on gesture that I want to discuss.

This article looks at the continuity between gestures of image and gestures of thought, using the example of writers’ iconographic and critical practices. The gestures of authors such as Louis Aragon, Ramón Gómez de la Serna and Claude Simon show how real gestures shape more abstract gestures of thought and ultimately give rise to concrete gestures of thought. This continuity justifies the interest of the HANDLING research programme (UCLouvain 2019-2024) in practices long considered anecdotal in literary studies, such as collage, the arrangement of images on walls, or the collection of postcards or other iconographic material. Based on the results of this European research project, this paper calls for concrete gestures to be taken more fully into account and for a literal approach to gesture in literature.

In his preface to Théodore Hannon’s Rimes de joie (1881), J.-K. Huysmans divided Parnasse into a rigorist option, embodied by Leconte de Lisle, and a second, led by Théodore de Banville. By complicating our usual understanding of this movement, this article examines the possibilities of a Parnassian sensibility in Huysmans’ work, and more specifically in his first book, Le Drageoir aux épices (1874). It also looks at Huysmans’ relationships with figures in the Belgian literary world: Hannon, Eekhoud and Lemonnier, whom Max Waller called a naturaliste-parnassien. Can such a label be used to describe Huysmans in return?

Drawing on Heidegger's redefinition of the concept of gesture as an action without end, this paper aims to reinterpret « Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit » by Annie Ernaux in light of a writing gesture that indefinitely reworks the figure of her mother. In particular, the notebook covering the years 1984-86 is re-examined in relation to the book Une femme, which represents, on the other hand, a writing gesture which is planned and structured, both regarding the form of the text and the attribution of meaning with respect to the existential trajectory of the author’s mother. Through this comparison, the article focuses on the modes of a writing, that of « Je ne suis pas sortie de ma nuit », capable of bringing into the world, not because writing is a demiurgic act (Fort 2008), but because writing, as an unoriented gesture, becomes each time a place for preserving the irreducible otherness of the other.

Si l’imperfection est déterminante chez Proust, elle demeure toutefois accidentelle, inessentielle : elle ne prend sa valeur de savoir qu’à la condition d’être déchiffrée, ce qui est précisément la fonction de l’art. L’immense effort de La Recherche consiste ainsi à opérer un déchiffrage absolu, sans reste, de tout ce qui se présente sous cette forme, d’où le caractère interminable de La Recherche, oeuvre destinée à gonfler infiniment, jusqu’à la mort de son auteur. Sur ce point, Annie Ernaux se distingue nettement de Proust. Chez elle, l’imperfection est essentielle et il s’agit dès lors d’inventer une écriture capable de saisir l’événement, l’accroc, l’anomalie. Tel est l’enjeu de son écriture photographique : renouer avec le savoir de l’imperfection par un travail qui, à rebours de l’idéalisation, retrouve son statut de déchet du symbolique, inexorablement hors-sens. Abstract While imperfection is a determining factor in Proust’s work, it remains accidental, inessential: it only takes on its value as knowledge if it is deciphered, which is precisely the function of art. The immense effort of La Recherche thus consists in deciphering absolutely, without rest, everything that presents itself in this form, hence the interminable nature of La Recherche, a work destined to grow infinitely, until the death of its author. On this point, Annie Ernaux clearly differs from Proust. For her, imperfection is essential, and she tries to invent a form of writing capable of capturing the event, the accident, the anomaly. This is the challenge of her photographic writing: to reconnect with the knowledge of imperfection through work that, as opposed to idealisation, rediscovers its status as the waste product of the symbolic, inexorably devoid of meaning.

Cette étude aborde l’autotraduction chez Francis Tessa, un écrivain né en Vénétie en 1935 et émigré à l’adolescence en Belgique, où il a bâti une solide réputation de poète en langue française, tout en poursuivant une activité de traducteur et d’autotraducteur entre le français et l’italien. À partir de l’analyse d’un de ses recueils en particulier, Demeure du deuil. Dimora del lutto (2003), consacré à la thématique des affections perdues, nous chercherons à dégager les caractéristiques principales et les enjeux de cette pratique d’écriture bilingue chez Tessa, en la situant dans le contexte de l’immigration italienne en Belgique dans la seconde moitié du siècle dernier. Abstract This contribution concerns self-translation in the work of Francis Tessa, an author who was born in Veneto in 1935 and who, during his adolescence, emigrated to Belgium, where he established a solid reputation as a Frenchspeaking poet. He is also a translator from Italian into French and vice versa, as well as a self-translator between these two languages. Focussing in particular on one of his bilingual collections, Demeure du deuil. Dimora del lutto (2003), which is dedicated to the theme of lost affections, this study aims to outline the main features of bilingual writing in Tessa, placing it in the context of Italian migration to Belgium in the second half of the last century.

Le Mercure belge (1817-1821) est le premier journal littéraire de la période « hollandaise » (1814-1830) dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux. Après la censure et le contrôle sous le régime napoléonien, il était le premier à (re) trouver une forme qui correspondait au rôle de plus en plus important du journal comme « genre » dans le champ littéraire. Or, cette recherche formelle se trouvait liée à la question de l’identité de ce champ littéraire. Quel modèle journalistique est proposé pour la littérature en Belgique dans le Mercure belge ? Il s’avère que le journal en a avancé plusieurs, en fonction d’une prise de position quant aux frontières de la littérature « belge ». En examinant d’un côté les changements dans les stratégies éditoriales et de l’autre les discours sur la littérature et sur le genre du journal lui-même, nous brosserons le portrait de ces différents modèles journalistiques. Nous adopterons une perspective communicative et médiatique, afin de mieux cerner la place du Mercure belge en tant que discours second dans le champ littéraire « belge » et en tant que genre dans le champ périodique. Abstract The Mercure belge (1817-1821) stands as the inaugural literary journal of the “Dutch” period (1814-1830) in the Southern Netherlands. Following the censorship enforced by the Napoleonic regime, it was the first to (re) invent a form that aligned with the increasing pivotal role the genre of the “journal” played in the literary field. This formal exploration was intertwined with the predicament of the ambiguous identity of this literary field. What model of literary journalism does the Mercure belge put forth? The periodical has proposed several models, depending on its shifting position regarding the boundaries and identity of “Belgian” literature. By delineating the shifts in editorial strategies and examining the discourses concerning literature and the nature of the journal itself, we aim to portray these different journalistic models. We will adopt a media-oriented perspective to delineate the Mercure’s position as a secondary discourse within the “Belgian” literary field and as a genre within the periodical field.

This article shows that, in The Unknown Masterpiece, Balzac reects on the relationship between melancholy and creation, making the former the critical instance of the latter, but also its inner driving force. It is the fragment, the “bare foot” emerging from the chaos that remains visible in Frenhofer’s work, which appears as the point of creation and at the same time the place of division between the failure of the painted work (Frenhofer’s) and the accomplishment of the written work (Balzac’s novel).

François Emmanuel is probably the Belgian writer who has spoken most about Poland. The reason for this insistent presence in his work lies in the experience he made in 1979-1980, when he was still a medical student joining Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium in Wrocław. It was during this stay that François Emmanuel became a writer and started his first novel. In his novels, Polish locales would abound, both in the foreground and in the background, as well as Polish protagonists and supporting characters. Through an exploration of the writer’s personal history and his subjective impregnation of the movement of History, it becomes possible to understand that Poland is, in his eyes, much more than a real or imaginary territory; it is an essential symbol as much as a drive for writing.

The 18th century is an ambivalent period when it comes to the role and place of women intellectuals. If the Enlightenment sees the number of female writers grow exponentially, they are, however, still subjected to the stereotypes and restrictions carried by the authoritative discourse of the time. Letters, as a literary space at the border of official literature, become a powerful medium of expression for women, allowing them to assert their ideas and shape their auctorial image. Taking into account this historical and literary background, this article analyzes the correspondence of Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni, an emblematic female writer of the second half of the 18th century, through the prism of irony as a discursive strategy. Her letters to David Hume, David Garrick, Robert Liston and Choderlos de Laclos highlight the importance of irony, not only as a tool for auctorial self-fashioning, but also as a way of expressing dissident opinions on 18th century society. On a larger scope, this article aims to give an overview of the way 18th century women authors voice sometimes controversial opinions, under a regime that heavily limits their agency.