Mus, F. (2020). The Demons of Leonard
Cohen. University of Ottawa Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv15d81pv (pp. 208)
Some artists
have a presence that appears to both transcend and pervade their work, and
there is, in Yeats’s words, “no way to distinguish the dancer from the dance”
(p. 57). In this book, Francis Mus explores the personas of an artist whose “oeuvre is haunted by
unreliable narrators” (p. 1). Who is the Leonard Cohen that keeps drawing new
generations to his art?
Mus’s book is
a study of Cohen’s oeuvre, including paratextual material. In order to shed light
on the relationship between the artist and his personas, his work and his
audience, Mus relies on both the critical reception of Cohen and a huge number
of Cohen interviews, as well as several biographies and documentaries. At the
core of the project is how communication is not a “mere transfer of meaning”
(p. 80) and how sense-making is a part of a larger process, connected to
dialogue, imagery and images, symbols and metaphor, and intertextuality. The book
can be seen as a comprehensive reception study, drawing on perspectives from
literary criticism, translation studies and other disciplines.
The book is a
translation of an expanded version of Mus’s lauded 2015 Dutch-language Cohen publication.
The updated version includes the 2016 album You want it darker and the
posthumous poetry collection The Flame. It is organized into six thematic
chapters, five of which explore the different masks or demons/daimons of
Cohen – “Image” addresses
the poser, “Artistry” the
writer and singer, “Alienation” the
stranger and the confidant, “Religion”
the worshipper, prophet and priest, and “Power” the powerful and powerless. The final chapter, “Encounter”,
explores the notion that “Cohen’s artistic practice can be read as an ongoing
attempt to forge interpersonal contact” (p. 19). Interspersed between these
chapters there are three intermezzos diving deeper into specific works or
themes in Cohen’s works: a case study of an unpublished short story; the
translation and international reception of Beautiful Losers; and the
theme of longing and loss.
While it may
appear to be on the fringes of translation studies, translation is a constant
presence in the book. There are themes and passages that intersect with translation
in most sections, and some address topics at the core of translation studies.
Mus points to
the great contrast between Cohen’s position in the Canadian literary system and
in European literary systems, where Cohen remained a singer first and a writer
second. While his recognition as a singer prompted translations of his literary
works, these translations remained curiosities; an acquired taste for those
with a special interest in Cohen. The discussion of the translation and
reception of Beautiful Losers highlights the novel’s situatedness within
a Canadian intertext, bound to the evolution of a national literature and to
the historical, ideological and linguistic roots of Canadian culture, which was
often ignored in the discourse surrounding the translation of the book. Beautiful
Losers takes place in a multicultural space, where English has dual
functions: as the language of colonialization by the Catholic church (p. 138)
and as a symbol of the breakdown of communication, reflected in the novel’s
experimental syntax and lexical choices. This section includes a discussion of
translatability, in which Mus questions the significance of linguistic referentiality
in the translation of the text and suggests that there are bigger issues at
stake than retaining or recreating language relations, in a work that perhaps
ultimately seeks to dismantle language.
In “Image”,
Mus details Cohen’s visual expressions, in his album art, projected images in
portraits, and book illustrations. The
most conspicuous image related to Cohen’s musical career is possibly that of
Cohen’s face, with its very distinct lines, often accentuated, which graces all
his recordings up to The Future in 1992.
The second
chapter, “Artistry”, discusses the relationship between the artist, the work
and the audience. Mus shows how the interplay between musical and vocal
arrangements, instrumentation, voice, body and image influences the authenticity and credibility of Cohen
as a performer. The intricacy of voice, narrative and perspective in Cohen’s texts
is showcased in brief analyses of Cohen’s literary work, and Mus highlights the
dialogical nature of many of the song lyrics, especially seen in the use of
personal pronouns, where perspective, point of address and reference may change
many times during a text, not only making the text open for interpretation but
also drawing the listener into the dialogue between the I and you
and she/he.
The theme of alienation
is found in many aspects of Cohen’s work. Mus argues that Cohen often operated
on the fringes of both musical and literary traditions, and that this resulted
in new spaces being created from unconventional combinations of musical,
spiritual and poetic traditions. He often positioned himself as the stranger
and cultivated this artistic persona (p. 87). The stranger’s gaze may give new
insights – “the best insider is an outsider” (p. 97). Mus shows how Cohen’s
literary work, especially in its early phase, is more geographically and
culturally situated than his song lyrics and how the general tone is raised to
a more abstract level in his music, allowing for a greater space for the
listener and adding to the “relationship between singer and audience” (p. 95).
This duality is also seen in the French and Québécois parallel
translations of Book of Longing, where the French paratext emphasizes the
universal nature and global appeal of Cohen’s work, in contrast to the Québécois
version, which is less concerned with situating Cohen on the global map.
In “Religion”,
Mus observes that in Cohen, sexuality and spirituality are intertwined, and that
there is a “conflation of the deified woman and the deity portrayed as a woman”
(p. 150), something which contributes to the ambiguity so often present in his
lyrics. Topics that are pursued at greater length in Mus’s book are related to
the rife use of religious references, in the form of symbols, allegories, metaphors
and genres, and Mus shows how Cohen implements Jewish (e.g., in “Who by Fire”) and
Buddhist (e.g., in “Ballad of the Absent Mare”) rituals in his work. He
convincingly argues how the use of religion in Cohen helps create “a sense of
connection with something higher or deeper” (p. 171).
Mus highlights
how themes related to power and power relations abound in Cohen’s oeuvre, both
as a performer and a lyricist – in the tension between vulnerability and
authority, loss and longing, love and dependence, which are captured in the description
of specific situations and in interactions during performances, with backing
singers, with fellow musicians and others. Throughout the book, Mus describes
an evolution in Cohen’s representation of himself from a “(powerful) leader to
a (humble) believer” (p. 175) – an almost parodical change, noting that the hunger
for power appears to wane with increasing success – perhaps because success and
reassurance from the audience is secured.
The demons of
Leonard Cohen is a notable
reception study of Cohen’s entire work, including his poetry and literary writings
and their translations, his songs and music, his imagery and book and album art.
Due to the scope and number of topics covered, some of the analyses included,
though perceptive and well-founded, are more sweeping in nature and would have
benefited from a more extensive treatment. A lot of attention is given to interviews
with Cohen and biographical information drawn from documentaries, as well as
biographies and conversations with people who knew Cohen. And at times, it almost
appears that Mus has access to Cohen’s feelings and perceptions.
The forte of
Mus’s book lies in how the focus firmly remains on analyses and criticisms of
the works, while also keeping tabs on the shifty narrator, the representation
of the artist and his demons. It will prove to be highly valuable companion to
any academic project on Cohen. Mus does a very fine job of writing a scholarly book
that is nevertheless accessible to a general audience, and – with the aid of
translator Laura Vroomen – in a style and a language that is pleasant and highly
readable.
Anja Angelsen
Norwegian University of Science and Technology