Christophe Meurée

The Literary Interview: Toward a Poetics of a Hybrid Genre

This article brings together the scattered research from the French, English, and German research traditions on the literary interview, that is, the extensive personal interview given by (or in some cases also conducted by) a literary author. The literary interview can be regarded as a hybrid genre for several reasons. First, it belongs to both the media and the literary domains. Second, its authorship is not only divided between interviewee and interviewer but also affected by editing and publishing interventions. Third, it mixes features of an oral interaction and of a written or edited communication. As a result, the literary interview as an object of study raises important questions about notions like genre, authorship, authorial positioning, and discourse at large. From a literary perspective, moreover, new light is also thrown on some of the basic characteristics associated with the personal interview in general: the “pact” or assumption of authenticity; the tension between format, on the one hand, and spontaneity, on the other hand; and the formal strategies used to (re-)create the encounter in the interview text. Both as a historical object and as a present-day, culture-specific practice, the literary interview is an interesting case of the dynamic interaction between the media and literature in contemporary cultures.

De mémoire et d’oubli : Marguerite Duras

« Il fallait un jour entier pour entrer dans lactualite des faits [...]. Il fallait un deuxieme jour pour oublier, me sortir de lobscurite de ces faits [...]. Un troisieme jour pour effacer ce qui avait ete ecrit, ecrire. » Durant plus dun demi-siecle, Marguerite Duras a entrelace sa vie et son oeuvre a lHistoire, empruntant des voies qui rendaient poreux le reel et la fiction. Ce mouvement complexe ne peut se detacher, comme lecrivain le precise elle-meme, de larticulation entre la memoire et loubli. Les textes rassembles ici partagent lobjectif de faire toute la lumiere sur ces problematiques qui constituent lun des piliers de loeuvre durassienne, des Impudents a Cest tout. Le present ouvrage est issu du colloque international « Marguerite Duras : desseins de memoire et doubli » qui sest tenu a lUniversite catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique) du 2 au 4 mars 2006, a loccasion du dixieme anniversaire de la mort de lecrivain.