"Letters to the Dead or Sade in the World War", in: Gilbert Lely or the Devouring Poetry, (E. Rubio ed.), L'Age d'Homme, 2007, pp. 197-208.
Here first is the call and program of the colloquium organized by Emmanuel Rubio:
GILBERT LELY, THE CENTENARY (October 14-16, 2004)
Colloquium organized by Emmanuel Rubio at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine and at the Sorbonne, Surrealism Research Center (Paris 3 - CNRS, dir. Henri Béhar)
As part of the events coordinated by Marie-Françoise Lely
Gilbert Lely (1904-1985) will remain as one of the great erotic poets of the 20th century, admired by André Breton, René Char or Yves Bonnefoy. Illuminating surrealism in the thirties with his "scabrous lamp", closest to René Char during the dark years of the war, the author of Arden (1933), of The Sylph or the Carnivorous Star (1938) offers with My Civilization (1942) his major collection that he will never stop retouching like a jewel always to be polished. His protean work presents free poetic translations (The Metamorphoses (1930); The Madness Tristan, 1954), dramatic poems (Solomonie the Possessed, 1979) or various collections (The Unfaithful Wife, 1966). It knows how to combine with a flagrant modernity the revival of antiquity or the study of the 18th century, to the dark beauty of his prose the reinvented humor of the epigram. Fine connoisseur of the history of medicine, which he illustrates in the journal Hippocrates, historiographer taking over from Maurice Heine in the unveiling of Sade's work, Gilbert Lely is also the editor of the complete works of the divine marquis (1962-64), of which he also publishes the unpublished correspondence. His Life of the Marquis de Sade (1952-57), constantly revised over the years, continues to be authoritative and has established itself as a true literary monument. Uniting perfectly lyricism and historical rigor, it offers a Sadean poetics and politics far from clichés, from which both Philippe Sollers and Pierre Guyotat were to inherit.
Thursday October 14 Maison de l'Amérique Latine (217, boulevard Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris) Afternoon 14.00 Presentation of the colloquium 14.15 Jacques Henric: "Fulgent Brother, to us!" 15.00 Emmanuel Rubio: The Dimension of the Impossible Break 16.00 Jean-Louis Gabin: The Mystery of Our Lady of Light 16.45 Yves Bonnefoy: A Poet
Friday October 15 Maison de l'Amérique Latine (217, boulevard Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris) Morning 9.00 Pierre Vilar: The King Marc Complex 9.45 Marc Kober: Gilbert Lely and Humor: from Ardent Lyricism to Poetic Subversion Break 10.45 Patrick Amstutz: Gilbert Lely's Latinity 11.30 Jacques-Rémi Dahan: Biography and Poetry Afternoon 14.30 Michel Delon: From Maurice Heine to Gilbert Lely 15.15 Jean-Christophe Abramovici: Gilbert Lely Reader of Sade Break 16.15 Claudie Massaloux: Lely Poet Authorizes Sade 17.00 Marcelin Pleynet: Revolution and Poetic Language
Saturday October 16 Sorbonne – Bourjac Room (17, rue de la Sorbonne, 75005 Paris, Ground Floor) Morning 9.00 Stéphanie Caron: Gilbert Lely and Surrealism 9.45 Laure Michel: René Char: the Brother in Poetry Break 10.45 Michel Viegnes: The Poetic Experience of Intensity in Gilbert Lely 11.30 Jean Benoît: "Everything Sade Signs is Love" Afternoon 14.30 Henri Behar: Letters to the Dead or Sade and the First World War 15.15 Sarane Alexandrian: Gilbert Lely and the Curiosities of Medical History 16.15 Jean-Clarence Lambert: Reading of My Civilization Free admission
Contact: emmanuel.rubio@libertysurf.fr The "Gilbert Lely the Centenary" colloquium is part of the overall Centenary Events coordinated by Marie-Françoise Lely, including: Homage to Gilbert Lely, 1904-1985 – Exhibition, National Library of France, Arsenal Library (1 rue de Sully, Paris 4e) from October 18 - November 6, 2004. Curator: Sabine Coron. Free admission every day except Sunday and holidays from 12pm to 6pm. Gilbert Lely: Writing Sade – Spoken Journal on November 3, 2004 at the Georges Pompidou Center. Director: Marianne Alphant.
Letters to the Dead or Sade in the World War Essay on Cultural Analysis of Texts, 2022, pp. 193-205. Collection: Theory of Literature, n° 24 Letters to the Dead or Sade in the World War (classiques-garnier.com)
Extension: The letters published in the Europe journal were republished under the title I Embrace You for Life. I Embrace You for Life: Letters to the Dead - Babelio
"These 26 letters were sent to the front during the First World War and could not be delivered to their recipients. Each envelope bore on the back the mention 'killed', or 'missing'. One bore the inscription 'shot'." My little Nono, I'm writing to you from the bar on the Boul Mich'. Around me, there's Mariette, Pauline, Margot and Nénette; all the girlfriends, you know! We miss you guys quite a bit, you know... It's not that we don't find things to do, for heaven's sake! With everything that's going around in Panam, you'd have to be really stupid, but it's not worth our dear little michons, with whom we laughed so much that we passed over everything else. Now we have everything else but we don't laugh anymore. Good God, when will this war end? Seems like America is going to finally join us. If that were true, it still couldn't last long!"