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LITERARY BILINGUALISM/247 survives on bread, milk, and tea and, like a writer from another century, writes his books in longhand on scrap paper (Saugues 50). Marion Van Renterghem, the critic at Le Monde, epitomizes the reviewersâ exoticization of this writer and their fascination with the practically mythical quality of his transformation from poor Russian exile to feted prize-winner. Her retelling of the story insists on both the drama of his successful assimilation into French letters (âsuddenly, the Prix Goncourtâ!) and the degree to which he retains seemingly Russian behaviors and even phonetics. One might even read her evaluation as emerging from the same prejudices that made it difficult for Makine to publish in the first place, although now with the emphasis reversed: instead of insisting that Makineâs correct French prose could not have been produced by a Russian, she marvels that a Russian could write such beautiful French. In the first part of this article, I examine the reviews of Le Testament français in French, American, and Russian publications in an attempt to understand how the critics, often in conversation with Makine himself, categorize the art and the identity of the bilingual writer. The French representation of him
Comparative Literature – Duke University Press
Published: Jan 1, 2003
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