Thought and fiction in the stories of Jean Paulhan (1904-1921)
Bernard BaillaudThe initial project, oriented solely towards the critical analysis of the stories, was enriched by the deposit of the Paulhan collection at the Institut Mémoires de l'Edition Contemporaine. Consultation of the numerous unpublished correspondences received and preserved by Paulhan as well as that of his press files made it possible to correct, clarify, almost double his bibliography, from 1904 until his death in 1968. The durability of correspondences begun before 1914 (Jules de Gaultier, René-Martin Guelliot for example) indicates a continuity that Paulhan's silences fail to mask. – nor the story, to break.
We are justified in arguing for an anteriority, not only of themes and points of view, but also of the logical predilections of Jean Paulhan's thought in relation to his best-known public forms. He was in contact with Freud's thought from 1907. Trained in the framework of French psychology (Frédéric Paulhan), stimulated by his stay in Madagascar (1908-1910), then by René-Martin Guelliot, director of Spectateur (1909-1914), Paulhan exercises in his stories published from 1917 a set of figures that he seeks from 1913 to organize into a “optical” mental. His double attempt with the N. R. F., from 1912 and 1913, like his membership in the Vieux-Colombier theater project, marks a desire to participate in collective intellectual adventures.
Centered on decisive experiences which French psychology only partially accounts for, his stories bear the trace of a long hesitation to be – or not to be – a scholar.
In the second volume, 4 student assignments or draft articles by young Jean Paulhan;
bibliography of Frédéric Paulhan's publications;
critical bibliography of the works of Jean Paulhan (1904-1999, approximately 1300 references);
bibliography of mentions, articles, advertisements and dedications from the author's press files (1889-1968, approximately 1500 references);
bibliography of posthumous studies and testimonies (1968-1999).
© B. Baillaud
(Text reproduced with the kind permission of the author)