Eros Raving

About the Book

Denis Roche’s new domain, or “realm,” for poetry as evidenced in Éros Énergumène (Eros Raving: Éditions du Seuil) is poetry derived from pulsion, an undeniable inner force or energy that drives the poem into being and controls and mandates its origin, source, structure, form, content, rhythm and outcome. This creative energy is clearly the reason the erotic takes such precedence and possession of the poetic. It is also quite understandable, with this complex demand for a new poetic where poems are neither viewed nor recited, why Roche turned to photography and the visual autobiography of his photographs, having perhaps pushed poetry to an absolute limit beyond letter and sound. He asserts, however, that this is a meaningless distinction, one only that critics make, because for him there is no difference between the creative acts of photography and writing. For Roche the difference between literature and photography is profound: “with literature one can only speak about time without ever showing it. One discourses about time, one does not figure it. With photography, yes.” He also says: “J’écris pour être seul, je photographie pour disparâitre.” (“I write to be alone, I photograph in order to disappear.”)

About the Author

Denis Roche was born in Paris in 1937. From 1964 to 1970, he was Literary Director at Éditions Tchou. From 1962 to 1972, he participated as a member of the Director’s Committee for the review Tel Quel, and under this imprint he published his first four books. In 1971, he joined Éditions du Seuil. As a member of the Editorial Committee, he directed, notably, the collections of contemporary literature, “Fiction & Cie” and “The Contemporaries.” In 1980, he founded, with Gilles Mora, Bernard Plossu and Claude Nori, Cahiers de la photographie (Photographic Notebooks). He was a member of the jury of the Prix Medici. In 1997, he received the Grand Prize for Photography from the City of Paris. He published some twenty books after Récits complets in 1963. His book, Le Boîtier de mélancolie, published by Hazan in 1999, received the Prix André Malraux. He died in Paris on September 2, 2015.