Nihilism and Poetry Explored in New Collection

Pascal Boulanger has edited a collective volume titled "Suspendu au récit – la question du nihilisme," published by Éditions Comp'Act. The book brings together eight essays responding to the contemporary question of nihilism, invoking key references such as Nietzsche and Heidegger. Rather than a systematic treatment, the volume blends criticism, poetry, and fiction to present a range of positions. Philippe Forest's article aims at clarification, highlighting contradictions in reactions to the crisis of values, including a "demand for meaning" leading to fundamentalism or a return of anti-democratic dandyism in French thought. The volume challenges the idea of salvation through art, orienting instead toward a poetics of the poem. Martin Rueff frames the issue by stating that nihilism, born within poetry, now describes a world where poetry struggles to be heard. Anne Malaprade's contribution on poet Roger Giroux describes a poetics of pure exposure to the negative, while Boulanger, Gilbert Bourson, Gilles Jallet, Claude Minière, and Rueff explore how to poetically overcome it. The works of Hölderlin, Rimbaud, and Pleynet are examined.