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A SHORT HISTORY
In 1982, Philippe Sollers
left Seuil, where he ran avant-garde journal
and imprint, Tel Quel, for 22 years.
Tel Quel comprises 94 issues published in
linguistics, psychoanalysis and literature.
Tel Quel represents twenty years
of theoretical thinking by a group of people
(Derrida, Barthes, Kristeva, Ricardou, Genette…)
whose political commitment and re-evaluation
of extreme and marginal works (Sade, Artaud,
Joyce, Bataille…) prevailed over the
exclusions and disagreements that punctuated
its life. But that’s another story…
Philippe Sollers published Femmes
with Gallimard in 1982 and was offered an
office, a journal and an imprint with Denoël.
A displacement the author would say. A severing?
Not if there is any relevance to form. The
two journals are so similar (vignettes and
embossed capitals). However, there was no
choice but to change the title of the journal.
“Why L’Infini? Do you really
want to irritate people? –(…)
it’s a proven method - Nevertheless,
L’Infini, as it stands today, sounds
ridiculous! – Almost as ridiculous
as another expression used not so long ago,
remember. “Be realistic, ask for the
impossible” (L’Infini N°1).
The tone was set: uncompromisingly provocative
and disturbing at the time.
After 1987, the imprint goes
over to the NRF and changes cover. Nevertheless,
L’Infini is not Tel Quel, despite carrying
over a similar tone and themes (sexuality,
deviant behaviour and writing) and the investigation
of seminal works (Céline by Henri
Godard and Stéphane Zagdanski; Genet
by Eric Marty and Catherine Millot; Debord
by Cécile Guilbert…). So many
rallying points, so many subversive or clandestine
facets of the writer.
"L’Infini" focuses
on the writing of the younger generation.
It is significant that François Meyronnis,
Yannick Haenel and Frédéric
Badré, co-founders of the journal
Ligne de risques were published, alongside
Bernard Lamarche-Vadel. That does not mean
there is a “Sollers club” or a
dogmatic approach prescribing the style
of new writing. The unique work of Rachid
O. is a striking example.
Shaking the apathy of “la
France moisie”, Sollers has taken a
long term view, and not without a certain
panache (Hélène Duffau’s
Trauma fro instance), the stories of Béatrice
Commengé, David Di Nota, Stéphane
Zagdanski… which for a while stood
beside the works of Frédéric
Beigbeder, Catherine Cusset, Benoît
Duteurtre and Alina Reyes. Fiction-cum-biography,
intimate narrative, mockery… here young
authors now at the forefront of the literary
stage can be found in fascinating cohabitation.
A few authors’ experimentation
with literary form had already been noticed
in the 1970s, as part of “Le Chemin”
for example, such as Pierre Bourgeade, Jean-Jacques
Schuhl (who gives his first Goncourt Prize,
Ingrid Caven, to “L’Infini”).
Gabriel Matzneff, on the other hand, has
entrusted Philippe Sollers with the publication
of his private journal since 1990.
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