In Le clair-obscur - extreme contemporain -: Pascal Quignard, Pierre Michon, Pierre Bergounioux, and Patrick Modiano Julia Holter proposes that a chiaroscuro aesthetic and mode of thought underlie and unite the work of four well-known contemporary French writers, studied together for the first time. Chiaroscuro, the bold or delicate contrast between light and shadow, is treated as a visual metaphor that evokes the tension between the senses and reason, in which the latter must take into account the former in order to temper its own totalitarian and conservative tendencies. Julia...