''Tel Quel'' (translated into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
as, variously: "as is," "as such," or "unchanged") was a French
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
literary magazine published between 1960 and 1982.
History and profile
''Tel Quel'' was founded in 1960 in Paris by
Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le S ...
and
Jean-Edern Hallier and published by
Éditions du Seuil
Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil' ...
. Important essays working towards
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
and
deconstruction appeared here. Publication ceased in 1982, and the journal was succeeded by ''
L'Infini'' under Sollers's continued editorship.
Though the journal originally published essays more in line with what current literary theory calls "
structuralism," it would eventually feature work that reflected the revaluation of literary, artistic, and music criticism that began in France in the 1960s.
[
The editors committee included ]Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le S ...
, Jean-Edern Hallier, Jean-René Huguenin, Jean Ricardou, Jean Thibaudeau, Michel Deguy, Marcelin Pleynet
Marcelin Pleynet (born 23 December 1933, in Lyon, France) is a French poet, art critic and essayist. He was Managing Editor of the influential magazine ''Tel Quel'' from 1962 to 1982, and co-edits the journal ''L'Infini'' (Gallimard) with Philippe ...
, Denis Roche, Jean-Louis Baudry Jean-Louis Baudry (March 2, 1930 – October 3, 2015) was a French novelist, '' Tel Quel'' literary editor, and psychoanalytic film theorist.
He is best known for "Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus" (1970) and "The Appara ...
, Jean-Pierre Faye
Jean-Pierre Faye (born 19 July 1925) is a French philosopher and writer of fiction and prose poetry.
Life and career
Faye was born in Paris. He was member of the editing committee of the avant-garde literary review ''Tel Quel
''Tel Quel'' (t ...
, Jacqueline Risset
Jacqueline Risset was a French poet noted for her work on the board of the literary journal Tel Quel along with Julia Kristeva and Philippe Sollers, and for her translations of Italian poetry into French. Risset's books include '' Sleep's Powers ...
, François Wahl, and Julia Kristeva (married to Philippe Sollers since 1967).
Authors and collaborators include Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popula ...
, Michel Foucault, Maurice Blanchot
Maurice Blanchot (; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...
, Pierre Boulez, Jacques Derrida, Jean Cayrol, Jean-Pierre Faye
Jean-Pierre Faye (born 19 July 1925) is a French philosopher and writer of fiction and prose poetry.
Life and career
Faye was born in Paris. He was member of the editing committee of the avant-garde literary review ''Tel Quel
''Tel Quel'' (t ...
, Shoshana Felman
Shoshana Felman is an American literary critic and current Woodruff Professor of Comparative Literature and French at Emory University. She was on the faculty of Yale University from 1970 to 2004, where in 1986 she was awarded the Thomas E. Donn ...
, Pierre Guyotat, Julia Kristeva, Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, political acti ...
, Marcelin Pleynet
Marcelin Pleynet (born 23 December 1933, in Lyon, France) is a French poet, art critic and essayist. He was Managing Editor of the influential magazine ''Tel Quel'' from 1962 to 1982, and co-edits the journal ''L'Infini'' (Gallimard) with Philippe ...
, , Dominique Rolin, Severo Sarduy, Philippe Sollers
Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le S ...
, Philippe-Joseph Salazar
Philippe-Joseph Salazar (), a French rhetorician and philosopher, was born on 10 February 1955 in Casablanca, then part of French Morocco. Salazar attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand a prestigious secondary-school in Paris (founded 1563) before ...
, Tzvetan Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov (; ; bg, Цветан Тодоров; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, whi ...
, Francis Ponge, Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of th ...
, Gérard Genette.
In 1971 the journal broke with the French Communist Party
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Un ...
and declared its support for Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
. In 1974 the editorial members Philippe Sollers, Marcelin Pleynet, François Wahl, Roland Barthes and Julia Kristeva visited China. The trip, which was tightly organized by Chinese government officials, would later be processed in several essays and books by the participants. In the autumn of 1976 the journal explicitly distanced itself from Maoism.
References
Further reading
* Patrick Ffrench and Roland-François Lack (eds.), ''The Tel Quel Reader'' (London: Routledge, 1998)
* Patrick Ffrench, ''The Time of Theory: A History of Tel Quel (1960-1983)'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995)
* Philippe Forest, ''Histoire de Tel quel: 1960-1982'' (Éditions du Seuil, 1995)
* Niilo Kauppi, ''The Making of an Avant-Garde: Tel Quel'' (Mouton de Gruyter, 1994)
External links
Interview with the ''Tel Quel'' founding group (video, 6 April 1963).
from taalfilosofie.nl (in Dutch)
Plus à propos de Tel Quel sur pileface.com/sollers
(in French)
{{Authority control
1960 establishments in France
1982 disestablishments in France
Avant-garde magazines
Communist magazines
Defunct literary magazines published in France
French-language magazines
Literary circles
Magazines established in 1960
Magazines disestablished in 1982
Magazines published in Paris