La Fabrique du Printemps: Francis Ponge et Mai 68

Commenting in retrospect on one of his descriptive texts, “Nioque de l’Avant Printemps,” Francis Ponge suggested that it foreshadowed the political upheavals of ’68, the revolutionary Springs: “The first publication of this text, composed much earlier [1950], strangely pre-dated the events in Berkeley, Berlin or Paris in 1967 and 1968, considered by some as Springs, in imitation of contemporary events like ‘the Prague Spring’ for instance” (OC II: 915; my translation). This statement leads us to reconsider the notion of political engagement, in particular in relation to Sartre’s definition in his extensive “Présentation” of the first issue of Les Temps Modernes. Under what conditions could the poetic, notional investigations of the April rain or pear trees have any resonance with the revolutionary agendas of the times?.