Literature, Ethics, and Decolonization in Postwar France: The Politics of Disengagement by Daniel Just (review)

Literature, Ethics, and Decolonization in Postwar France: The Politics of Disengagement analyzes the political and ethical implications of a particular literary style, characterized by “the aesthetics of blankness” and a narrative strategy of “exhaustion,” “weakness,” and “slowness,” that Daniel Just attributes to Roland Barthes, Maurice Blanchot, Albert Camus, and Marguerite Duras. Just’s main argument is built upon two axes, the first of which is an analysis of the historical and political setting in France. The second, larger axis comprises a theoretical exploration of language’s indeterminate nature, the relationship between literary forms and politically charged times, and the prevalent view in the mid-1950s that a strong, stable, centered self was the kernel of communicating meaning and that work was the existential mode of relating to others.