[Yale-readings] Reading and Talk by Contemporary French Poet, today, 4pm

[Nancy Kuhl]

>October 19 (Tuesday)
>Jean-Michel Espitallier
>
>"De la poésie contemporaine en France: nouveaux enjeux, nouvelles formes"
>
>4:00 p.m.
>Romance Languages Lounge
>82-90 Wall Street
>
>delivered in French
>followed by reception
>all are welcome
>
>jean-michel espitallier
>bio
>Jean-Michel Espitallier lives in Paris and works in France and abroad as a 
>poet, editor, publisher and translator. His books include the just-out At 
>War, as well as Espitallier’s Theorem and Gasoil. Two books are 
>forthcoming in translation:  Fantasy Butcher (grotesque) due out from 
>Duration Press this fall and Espitallier’s Theorem from Seismicity 
>Editions in 2005. Together with Vanina Maestri and Jacques Sivan, 
>Espitallier co-founded and edits the journal Java. In 2001, he edited a 
>special edition of Magazine littéraire, “New French Poetry,” and has 
>edited an anthology of new French poetry for Pocket, Pièces détachées. In 
>2004 he was named a member of the poetry commission of the National Centre 
>du Livre, and author on tour in the U.S. under the auspices of the French 
>Cultural Services.
>
>In addition to his work on the printed page, Espitallier often 
>collaborates with artists, musicians and theater companies. Together with 
>a number of artists and writers, he is currently designing sound and 
>visual installations for the Rimbaud house in Charleville, France, 
>scheduled to open this fall. In 2005, under the direction of Arnaud Romet, 
>the theater company Iatus will create an electroacoustic and video project 
>based on Espitallier’s Theorem for performance in Bordeaux.
>
>Books :
>En Guerre, Inventaire/invention, 2004
>Le Théorème d’Espitallier, Flammarion, 2003
>Fantaisie bouchère : grotesque, Derrière la salle de bain, 2001
>Pièces détachées : une anthologie de la poésie française aujourd’hui, 
>Pocket, 2000
>Gasoil : prises de guerre, Flammarion, 2000
>Ponts de frappe, Fourbis, 1995
>
>
>So then, to write a book about war? To fabricate a book with some war? But 
>why put some war there where there isn’t any (first question!)? And what 
>can I make with war? To describe it (but from what point of view?)? To 
>tell it (apart from what experience?)? To denounce it (but according to 
>what ethics?)? As I follow after a good many people (because I follow 
>after a good many wars), the exercise is not without risk (less than that 
>of making war, all the same). The risk of only saying again something 
>always-already-said-already-thought-already-found. Now I contest that, if 
>I am constantly bombarded by real images of real wars, I have never myself 
>made war nor ever seen war up close, which, obviously, is not reason 
>enough to make me hold my peace about war. And if I have nothing to say, I 
>have invented it all. For example, a book at war.  In its difference from 
>a book about war, the book at war captures some bits of war to make book.
>I here begin a new book. That is not a book about the war but a book 
>fabricated with the bits of it.
>
>from at war, 2004
>translation S. Brennan
>Contact jean-jacques.poucel at yale.edu for more information

Nancy Kuhl
Assistant Curator, The Yale Collection of American Literature
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale University
121 Wall Street
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven, CT 06520-8240
Phone: 203.432.2966
Fax: 203.432.4047
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