Philip Roth. American Pastoral

Mon père m'a transmis la plupart de ces carnets manuscrits, de ces photographies sépia et de ces correspondances sur papier jauni. Ces documents m'ont permis de reconstituer l'histoire de notre famille. Les Badonnel sont originaires de Granges-Aumontzey, une petite ville dans le massif des Vosges. Entre 1881 et 1962, chaque génération d'hommes a connu la violence du déracinement. Les guerres ont emporté au loin tous mes aïeux, les uns après les autres. Ils sont partis conquérir la Tunisie sous la IIIe République, ils ont combattu dans l'artillerie pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, ils ont souffert de l'Occupation, en particulier lors du repli de l'armée allemande en novembre 1944, enfin ils se sont retrouvés en Kabylie alors que le peuple algérien luttait pour son indépendance. Cette expérience inédite a conduit Adrien, son fils Armand, son petit-fils Gaston et André, son arrière-petit-fils, mon père, à affronter nombre d'épreuves, avant de pouvoir revenir au pays, comme transformés, ouverts sur le monde. Cette histoire de famille dans le terrible XXe siècle pose finalement la question de l'identité et de sa construction, comme celle du courage de simples Français. Dans ce qui nous constitue et nous anime, quelle est la part de la transmission familiale ? Comment s'arrache-t-on à la génération précédente tout en lui restant fidèle ? N'ayant jamais connu la guerre, il m'a fallu d'autres circonstances pour m'interroger, en éprouvant mes limites, sur ce qui faisait mon identité. Jusqu'où suis-je allé le plus loin de moi-même ? Je ne me dérobe pas à la question. J'assume." E. B.

Résumé : Written as the recollection of a 110-year-old woman, "Miss Jane", The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is the narrative of African-American history from the Declaration of Emancipation to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Gaines's masterpiece is meant to represent the interpretation of the events of a century through the central character's uneducated but street-wise vision. Carefully built on a historical structure, the book relies on a well-mastered stylistic technique that mixes several literary genres, providing the reader with a deep insight into the African American experience. Inevitably, such central issues as "black pride", human dignity, ethics or the nature of freedom are raised and the reader finds himself actively involved in the reconstruction of a black subject whom "history" had relegated in the footnotes of a "Manifest Destiny" written by revisionist ideologues.

A sequel to Rock Springs and Women with Men, the collection of short stories entitled A Multitude of Sins was published in 2001 and immediately achieved worldwide recognition. If this series of ten short stories seems to feature adultery, it would be a major mistake to believe that the stories can be reduced to what is actually a side issue or a pretext to something else, sometimes of much greater importance. As often with great writers, Richard Ford tackles several other topics along with the sin of unfaithfulness which is a base camp from which to go further up into the knowledge of human deficiency, lack and want. Pondering these sins, Richard Ford lays them all bare while often unveiling the issue of the story right from the beginning, instead of cautiously preserving it as a last chance literary trick to pull it off at the fast moment. Showing insight through observation, his writing is deceptive in as much as it seems natural and easygoing when it requires close analysis and several successive readings to yield up its literary and humane secrets. The comparison some critics have made to Chekhov is not overblown and Agregation students, certainly among the most perceptive readers in the world, should naturally enjoy both reading and studying A Multitude of Sins, pleasure and scholarship being complementary, not antagonistic. The exclusive interview of Richard Ford at the end of the book will certainly be appreciated by Agregation students, who will thus be able to finish off their knowledge of Ford's works. Biographie de l'auteur Patrick Badonnel, former chair of the Agrégation, is full professor of American literature and civilization at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris III). Claude Maisonnat, a former member of the jury of the Agrégation, is Professor Emeritus at the Lumière-Lyon II University where he taught seminars on English and American literature and psychoanalytical criticism.

Un spécialiste des politiques de santé relate son expérience d'aidant naturel d'une personne atteinte de la maladie d'Alzheimer. Le livre interpelle, au-delà de la maladie. Que savons-nous de ceux que nous aimons ? Dans notre rapport à la vérité, nous sommes tous atteints d'Alzheimer.