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French Studies: A Quarterly Review, Volume 63, Number 2, April 2009,

pp. 234-235 (Review)
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For additional information about this article

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/frs/summary/v063/63.2.fuggle.html

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234

REVIEWS

ction and essays, leaving a lot of room for discussion. Margerrison does not want
to condemn Camus for being a man of his time, but, all the same, she puts the case
for the prosecution very vigorously.
doi:10.1093/fs/knp021

MOYA LONGSTAFFE
UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER

Foucault Beyond Foucault: Power and its Intensications Since 1984. By JEFFREY
T. NEALON . Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2008. viii 136 pp.
Hb $55.00. Pb $21.95.
Michel Foucault goes from strength to strength. That is, if we are to believe the
stats. Of all the twentieth-century French philosophers, he continues to be the
most frequently cited and discussed with his popularity growing steadily rather
than waning over the twenty-ve years which have passed since his death. Yet,
according to Nealon, the Foucault so fervently talked about today is not the
Foucault of the 1980s whose name was virtually synonymous with his theory of
power. Today, a different Foucault is being read, one whose interest is no longer
taken up with institutional forms of power but focused instead on an ethics or aesthetics of the self and in particular the question of how it is possible for one to
construct a truth of the self in contradistinction to other discourses of truth
operating within society. For Nealon, this shift of interest towards the later
Foucault, while hardly surprising, is all too hasty in its abandonment of power.
This book is his attempt to redress the balance. His call for a reappraisal of power
since Foucaults death has two main objectives: to reassess the relationship
between power and subjectivity emphasising that Foucaults later work on ethics
of the self does not constitute a rejection of power but indicates one of the ways
in which power relations have developed and mutated in recent decades and to reintroduce the question of economics into a discussion of Foucauldian power. Nealons
claim is that over the past two decades, power has intensied with individuality
replacing normalization as its primary target. He identies, in particular, how
artistic self-creation and care of the self described by Foucault are themselves
practices which are caught up in a discourse of consumerism which constructing
us as subjects who desire individuality above all else, offers us consumption as the
means of fullling this desire. In his delineation of the relationship between
power, consumerism and economics, Nealon succeeds in putting to bed the misconception that Foucaults understanding of power precludes a discussion of
economics. This misconception is largely due to Foucaults heavy criticism of
Marxist ideology despite the fact that Foucault himself frequently refers to capitalism and economic development in relation to power. Consequently, Nealons clear
discussion of this relationship with specic reference to late capitalism is refreshing
and certainly paves the way for future work in this area. However, aside from his
discussion of economics, Nealon does not really tell us anything new about
Foucault and power making his claims for writing this book somewhat spurious.
A large part of the book is taken up with the rehashing of old commentaries and
fails to take into account the impact that the recent and ongoing publication of
Foucaults lectures at the Colle`ge de France has had on current scholarship.
Moreover, Nealons naive assumptions that power is no longer of central importance to many of those working on Foucault and that he is the rst to have made

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a connection between power and subjectivity make this potentially exciting project a
wasted opportunity.
doi:10.1093/fs/knn203

SOPHIE FUGGLE
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON

Hele`ne Cixous: Texture mythique et alchimique. By METKA ZUPANCIC . Birmingham

AL, Summa Publications, 2007. ix 206 pp. Hb $42.95.
Cixous remains one of the most prolic authors of contemporary France, and her
work continues to have a powerful impact on an impressive spectrum of interdisciplinary artistic practices. The last ve years have witnessed a marked increase in
translation of a wider range of her more recent writings to bring about better recognition of a prole that extends far beyond the imposed label of French feminist
theory. Zupancics study provides detailed engagement with Cixous ctions of the
last 15 years and proves a welcome addition to the eld in its commendably uid
approach that combines the close textual analysis of individual books with the
identication of central concerns that traverse the fabric of the Cixousian project.
The volumes many sections provide stimulating analysis of a wide range of
subjects including Cixous dialogues with Derrida, the sacred body, scriptural
delity, writing and loss, maternal genealogies and female deities. While the Introduction is rich in its extensive afrmation of the force salvatrice of Cixous writing, a
more detailed (and more closely referenced) exposition of the critical parameters of
the volumes approach, described as mythocritique et mythanalytique (p. 7), is
missing. Indeed engagements with the work of Bucher and Durand, which appear
much later but which clearly inform the whole text, would have been better
placed in these early sections. It remains in the second half of the book, where
the overarching focus on orphisme is less pronounced, that the most engaging and
detailed analyses emerge. Zupancics exploration of the tropes of sacrice in
LAmour du loup (2003) and the structures of alterity in Manhattan (2002) are particularly cogent and insightful. These sections also succeed in addressing the political
imperatives of recasting (and often re-gendering) narratives of classical mythology
to provide powerful narratives for a radical Imaginary. Although it remains regrettable that the labelling of Cixous plays (here, La Ville parjure. . .) as a theatre de tete
(p. 95) works to underplay the impact of dramatic collaboration and theatrical
practice on Cixous wider scriptural processes, its inclusion strengthens the critical
framework of the volume. The Conclusion is somewhat weakened in focus
through its (otherwise laudable) desire to include brief responses to Cixous continuing prolic output. This study constitutes a valuable addition to the eld and will be
of specic interest to those exploring Cixous recent ctions.
doi:10.1093/fs/knp005

JULIA DOBSON
UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

Olivier Rolin: Litterature, histoire, voyage. Etudes reunies par LUC RASSON et BRUNO
TRISTMANS avec un entretien inedit de lauteur. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 2008.
164 pp. Pb E33.00.
Exact contemporain de Michon, Echenoz et Quignard, lauteur ne benecie pas de la
meme legitimite, alors que son uvre exigeante, etalee sur vingt-cinq ans, merite