thesis

Stendhal et le temps ( l'intime, l'histoire, le romanesque)

Defense date:

Jan. 1, 1995

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Institution:

Caen

Disciplines:

Literature

Authors:

Directors:

Abstract EN:

Born in 1793 and a witness of the unprecedented upheaveals that decapited the former state of things, beyle appears as a man on whom time bore a deep influence. And so did it on his works. Indeed whichever way one considers them, stendhal's working keep up an impassioned relationship with the past, the present and the future , since posterity precisely divides the genius that will transcend his era from the man of letters that remains a prisoner of his time. So that in the detail of his narrative fiction, the themes (the fair-haired aristocrat versus the plebeian 'scarlet and black'), the construction of the plot (the succession of events insidiously undermined by repetition and the mistreatment of time), the attribution of roles (strength, which propels history, organizes the characters), etc. , seem to be the instruments of a chronicler that renounced the concepts of causality and a luminous flow of time. With stendhal, awhole philosophy of history is brought to an end. The patterns of time cannot be superposed. Such is the way of life, such is the way of world : the memoirs from beyond the tomb put an end to the

Abstract FR:

Ne en 1783, contemporain des bouleversements inouis qui ont decapite l'ancien ordre des choses, beyle est un homme profondement marque par le temps. Son oeuvre egalement. De quelque biais qu'on les aborde en effet, les ecrits stnedhaliens entretiennent une relation passionee avec le passe, le present et l'avenir , la posterite separant, precisement, les genies transcendant leur epoque des hommes de lettres prisonniers de leur siecle. Et dans le detail des recits fictifs, thematique (l'aristocratique blond oppose aux noir et rouge phebiens), construction de l'intrigue (la succession des evenements insidieusement minee par la repetition, la duree malmenee), distribution des roles (c'est l'energie , moteur de l'histoire et de ses contradictions , qui ordonne les personnages), etc. , apparaissent tributaires d'un chroniqueur ayant renonce a l'idee d'une causalite et d'une duree lineaire et lumineuse. Avec stendhal, c'est toute une philosophie de l'histoire qui s'acheve. Non superposables sont les temps. Ainsi va la vie, ainsi va le monde : les memoires d'outre-tombe ferment le ban des recits de vie classiques, la vie de henry brulard ouvre la voie des autobiographies modernes. Stendhal, notre contemporain. . .