Timothy Billings Spends Sabbatical with French Poetry

Author: Lanford Beard

Assistant Professor of English Timothy Billings recently received a prestigious fellowship from the Camargo Foundation, allowing him to spend the fall semester of his 2002-2003 sabbatical in Cassis, France.

Billings will be editing an estimated 320-page, 75-poem English critical edition of "Stèles," the French poet Victor Segalen's collection of French verse with epigraphs in Chinese, modeled on the form and texts of ancient Chinese monuments.

Billings is excited about this undertaking because of the general, though decreasing, ignorance of Segalen's works, as well as current errors in the few translations that do exist. He views the project as a chance to open doors for scholars and students around the world.

"In presenting this new material and in pursuing these Chinese intertexts, the critical edition will be a significant intervention in the current scholarship on Segalen and an indispensable resource for future scholars, even in France," affirmed Billings.

An ardent student of both French and Chinese for over a decade, Billings did graduate-level work in classical Chinese literature while working on his doctorate in English at Cornell University. In addition, he has taught Chinese literature and culture at Cornell, Colgate University and Middlebury College. Billings became intrigued with the ideas of East and West literary and culture studies.

He is currently working on a book inspired by his dissertation concerning China in the Renaissance, entitled "Illustrating China."

Right now, Billings believes that "the moment is ripe for Segalen. He is still all but unknown outside of France, largely because most of his work has not been translated."

Some of the most exciting and innovative features of Billings' edition will include original French text and Chinese calligraphy, trilingual translation of 11 previously unpublished poems from Segalen's manuscripts, an introduction covering not only the specifics of the literature but also of the historical, social and intertextual framework of Segalen's poems and a look into the personal atmosphere in which the poet released his initial edition in 1914.

Indeed, providing such precise translation and annotation will be a time consuming and tiring endeavor as one poem alone can take up to a full week.

Billings explained, "One aim of this edition will be to supply everything possible in the way of description, illustration and analysis to aid readers in re-imagining the physical, extra-textual qualities of that book and their significance." He envisions going beyond what most critical editions supply, catering to student and scholarly readers alike.

Billings finds that Segalen's writings not only chronicle the environment of the early twentieth century, but also are extremely applicable to historically important and emerging issues in cultural studies.

He remarked, "Segalen's writings explicitly address topics of current interest such as travel, tourism, museology and the exotic, and continually thwart the expectations of typical critiques of Orientalism."

Billings continued, "This edition should be of interest not simply to specialists in French literature but also to a larger academic community working on postcolonial theory, intercultural poetics and the representation of otherness."

Billings conceived the idea for the edition of "Stèles" as well as for the first "Segalen Reader" in conjunction with Christopher Bush of Harvard University and Haun Saussy of Stanford University.

"The Segalen Reader," which Billings will co-edit with a team of translators who he will supervise during his leave, will offer English readers an introduction to Segalen's poetry as well as his critical writing and cultural studies.

"I see these books as a ways to make a significant contribution to the field of East/West comparative literature," Billings commented.

Personally, Billings will use the time also to work on his spoken French, which he described as "rather bookish, but during the last three years it has become supple and serviceable in speech that I can occasionally pass for French in limited conversation, as I have long passed for a Chinese from somewhere — people are never quite sure where — on the phone."

For those interested in exploring the beginnings of Billings' study, his work can be found in the upcoming "Yale Anthology of Twentieth Century French Poetry" to be published in 2003.