Abstract
The notion of “creative destruction” that Marx introduced in the Communist Manifesto (and many economists and sociologists have used since) runs through Jean-Philippe Toussaint's tetralogy Marie Madeleine Marguerite de Montalte (2002–2013). According to Marshall Berman in All that is Solid Melts into Air, this notion defines the experience of modernity, which is central to Toussaint's novels. Thus, the tetralogy's protagonist, Marie–a stylist, visual artist, and savy business woman–is at the crossroads between contemporary art and money. Yet, all her creations are permeated with ideas of emptiness and dissolution. Through her, Toussaint may well redefine Baudelaire's notion of paradoxical modern beauty. In contradiction to her successful participation in the capitalist economy, however, Marie's most important characteristic is her innate aptitude to immerse herself in the elements, her “oceanic disposition.” In reminding us of the “cosmic dimension of existence” and of duration, Toussaint proposes a dynamic principle that runs counter to creative destruction.
Notes
1. « The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop and factory to such concerns as U. S. Steel illustrates the same process of industrial mutation [...] that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism » (Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 83).
2. La tétralogie de Jean-Philippe Toussaint se compose de Faire l'amour (2002); Fuir (2005); La Vérité sur Marie (2009); Nue (Citation2013).
3. En parallèle, le jeu verbal « haute couture » / « sans couture » qui fonde la description pointe vers le minimalisme littéraire sous lequel la critique range volontiers l'œuvre de Toussaint.
4. Voir, par exemple, les créations de Hussein Chalayan et Iris Van Harpen.
5. Dans la théorie de Joseph Schumpeter, l'entrepreneur est le moteur de l'économie. Par ailleurs, l'interaction de la création et de la destruction dans le travail de Marie peut être reliée à des préoccupations artistiques contemporaines, telles que les explore l'exposition Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 qui s'est tenue du 24 octobre 2013 au 26 mai 2014 au Hirshorn Museum à Washington D. C. « Damage control » est exactement ce qu'accomplit Marie lorsqu'elle retourne la déconfiture du défilé de haute couture en tableau tragique.
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Notes on contributors
Elisabeth Cardonne-Arlyck
Elisabeth Cardonne-Arlyck is Professor Emerita at Vassar College (NY). She is the author of La Métaphone raconte. Pratique de Julien Gracq (Klincksieck 1984), Désir, figure, fiction. Le « Domaine des margres » de Julien Gracq (Minard 1981) and Véracités. Ponge, Jaccottet, Roubaud, Deguy (Belin 2009). She directed the collection Effractions de la poésie with D. Viart (Minard 2003) and co-directed two issues of CFFS on Écrire/Filmer (2005). She is currently writing a book on tears in cinema.