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Contemporary French and francophone studies, 2016-06, Vol.20 (3), p.478-485
Ort / Verlag
Abingdon: Routledge
Erscheinungsjahr
2016
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Taylor & Francis Current Content Access
Beschreibungen/Notizen
My article proposes a reading of Valéry's essay, "Avenir de la littérature" (1928), which foresaw literature becoming a dead language. This fate of literature is due not just to future readers' lack of interpretive effort, but also their lack of effortlessness in reading. To contextualize this point, my essay draws on earlier speculations, made by some of Valéry's contemporaries, about orthographic reform and the potential scission of French into separate languages. These speculations invite an analogy between basic literacy (effortless recognition of written words) and advanced literacy (effortless comprehension of verse conventions). Without readers accustomed to comprehending poems with some degree of facility, the reasoning goes, poetry is no longer a living language.