Literature, Art and the Pursuit of Decay in Twentieth-Century France

In Literature, Art and the Pursuit of Decay, Timothy Mathews examines work by a range of writers and painters working in France in the twentieth century. The well-illustrated book engages with canonical figures - Guillaume Apollinaire, Marguerite Duras and Jean Genet, Roland Barthes, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte - as well as more neglected individuals including Robert Desnos and Jean Fautrier. Mathews draws on psychoanalysis, existentialism and poststructuralism to show how both literature and fine art promote the value of generosity in a culture of anxiety and intolerance. Decay emerges as a surprising ally in this quest because of its ability to undermine intellectual complacency and egoism. Integrating theoretical and material approaches to reading and viewing, Mathews engages with the distinctive features of different literary genres and different types of painting to develop an original history of artistic ambition in twentieth-century France.

• The book is well illustrated • The period covered is broad, giving an overview of the twentieth century in French art and literature • The book is also specific, looking at distinctive features of different literary genres and different types of painting, through the examples of specific key writers and artists

Illustrations; Acknowledgements; Prologue: form and decay; 1. Looking and loving: Harlequins in Apollinaire and Picasso; 2. Signs and the imaginary: the pleasures of discontent in Roland Barthes; 3. Dreams, schemes and wordplay: the surrealism of Robert Desnos; 4. Sterility and power: on some paintings by René Magritte; 5. The offerings of decay: Jean Fautrier, Les Otages; 6. Clothed intimacy: theatre and sex in Marguerite Duras, Les Yeux Bleus Cheveux Noirs; 7. ‘Des Milliers de Parisiens’: conflict, community and collapse in Jean Genet, Les Paravents; Epilogue; List of works consulted; List of illustrations; Index.

‘… elegant and stimulating essays …’. Journal of European Studies