Abstract EN:

This thesis shows that in his six novels Marivaux creates an effect of reality and invents a new poetics of the concrete. The first section examines how Marivaux individualises his characters and gives them a down-to-earth element. He often chooses names rooted in contemporary reality and includes many picturesque portraits, describing the body in many different states, with detailed attention to gestures and poses. The diversity of languages gives the illusion of natural authenticity. The reader is privy to the characters' inner lives. Marivaux's humanist novel no longer shows abstract, idealised heroes, but true-to-life beings in all their complexity. The thesis then looks at the way Marivaux inserts his characters into concrete spaces, in contrast to the stylised, artificial backgrounds used in the novels he is parodying. Places are often named and clearly located. The description of spaces both internal and external, whether rustic or urban, can be minutely detailed. An intense relationship exists between space and character. Moreover, the proliferation of objects, numerous observations of everyday details and little incidents from real life make this fictional world concrete. Finally, in order to discover the origins of this poetics, Marivaux is identified as part of a movement that fosters the emergence of the concrete in literature. The coherence between his practice as a novelist and his aesthetic ideas is also clear : his refusal to imitate Classical writers and to be an "auteur", his option for the natural, the "bigarrure", the "Je ne sais quoi" and the "rien", his principle of clarity and his concept of style go hand in hand with the concrete in his novels.