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Bernard Vargaftig

Gestures toward the Sacred

by Aaron Prevots (Author)
©2019 Monographs VIII, 136 Pages
Series: Modern French Identities, Volume 134

Summary

The French poet Bernard Vargaftig (1934–2012), first known in 1960s literary circles as a writer mentored by Aragon, published regularly and served on the editorial boards of Action poétique and Europe. His poetry foregrounds identity and alterity, eros and notions of self, an immediate present and an onrushing past. This book examines Vargaftig’s evolution and aims. It explores his postwar search for self-acceptance, ontological rootedness and shared forward paths. Using close readings of his poetry and prose, complemented by his comments in interviews, the book particularly considers his emphasis on the sacredness of words. His spiritual yearnings, as well as a need to heal due to lingering trauma from wartime hiding, are shown to underlie his focus on allusive imagery, recurring motifs and compact structures, where silence and sound interweave. Comparative analyses are used to show how his enthusiasm for the female Other attunes us to interpersonal bonds and to the outer world’s creative surge. The study of Vargaftig through the lens of gestures toward the sacred thus highlights poetry as a healing ritual, one that facilitates not only immersion in emotion and sensation, but also a continual process of renewal and self-discovery.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgements
  • Introduction Identity, Alterity, Childhood
  • Chapter 1 Early Poems: Finding a Voice
  • Chapter 2 The Influence of Jouve: Poetry as a Spiritual Vocation and the Trembling of Words
  • Chapter 3 Self-Awareness and Feminine Presence: Aveu, distance, ouverture, nudité
  • Chapter 4 Sacred Gestures and Talmudic Traditions: The Eros of Unknowing in Comme respirer
  • Chapter 5 “Les mêmes mots débordent”: The Sacred in Guillevic’s Le chant and Vargaftig’s Un récit
  • Chapter 6 Memory Work and Sacred Bonds in Un même silence and Aucun signe particulier
  • Conclusion Authenticity, Historicity, Judaicity
  • Bibliography
  • Chronological Overview of Works by Bernard Vargaftig
  • Index
  • Series Index

Aaron Prevots

Bernard Vargaftig

Gestures toward the Sacred


Peter Lang

Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the
Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data:

A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

Cover image: Pathway, 32x45cm Oil on Paper by Kinga Ogieglo. <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pathway_32x45cm_Oil_on_Paper_by_Kinga_Ogieglo.jpg>, CC BY-SA 4.0 license, <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by sa/4.0/deed.en>, no changes made.

Cover design: Peter Lang Ltd.

ISSN 1422-9005

ISBN 978-1-78997-357-0 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78997-358-7 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-78997-359-4 (ePub) • ISBN 978-1-78997-360-0 (mobi)

© Peter Lang AG 2019

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,

52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom

oxford@peterlang.com, www.peterlang.com

Aaron Prevots has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.

Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without

the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.

This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,

and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed.

About the author

Aaron Prevots is Associate Professor of French at Southwestern University. He received his PhD from Brown University. He has published articles on French poetry, a monograph on Jacques Réda and numerous translations.

About the book

The French poet Bernard Vargaftig (1934–2012), first known in 1960s literary circles as a writer mentored by Aragon, published regularly and served on the editorial boards of Action poétique and Europe. His poetry foregrounds identity and alterity, eros and notions of self, an immediate present and an onrushing past. This book examines Vargaftig’s evolution and aims. It explores his postwar search for self-acceptance, ontological rootedness and shared forward paths. Using close readings of his poetry and prose, complemented by his comments in interviews, the book particularly considers his emphasis on the sacredness of words. His spiritual yearnings, as well as a need to heal due to lingering trauma from wartime hiding, are shown to underlie his focus on allusive imagery, recurring motifs and compact structures, where silence and sound interweave. Comparative analyses are used to show how his enthusiasm for the female Other attunes us to interpersonal bonds and to the outer world’s creative surge. The study of Vargaftig through the lens of gestures toward the sacred thus highlights poetry as a healing ritual, one that facilitates not only immersion in emotion and sensation, but also a continual process of renewal and self-discovery.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Details

Pages
VIII, 136
Year
2019
ISBN (PDF)
9781789973587
ISBN (ePUB)
9781789973594
ISBN (MOBI)
9781789973600
ISBN (Softcover)
9781789973570
DOI
10.3726/b15531
Language
English
Publication date
2019 (June)
Keywords
identity Judaic culture postwar literature post-Shoah History gaps gestures emotion renewal child survivor life writing autobiographical memory sensation difference eros alterity
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2019. VIII, 136 pp.

Biographical notes

Aaron Prevots (Author)

Aaron Prevots is Associate Professor of French at Southwestern University. He received his PhD from Brown University. He has published articles on French poetry, a monograph on Jacques Réda and numerous translations.

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