La Grèce antique dans Les Martyrs de Chateaubriand
Institution:
Paris 8Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
Chateaubriand's thorough knowledge of antiquity and the impressions of his travel in the old land of europe are really t he constituent parts of the picture of greece of les "martyrs". This picture remains, in a sense, in line with the classical tradition; chateaubriand has followed close on the heels of the ancients, and found, through them, ideas, literary tricks. Themes and poetic language. By his writting he has revived the homeric world at the expense of the historical authenticity. He didn't understand the antiquity like the classics had felt it : they had tryed to find the principle of eternity and of universality, and he stuck to the exterior elements. With his state of mind and his feelings, very well expressed in prose, the hero is more like a romantic character that a man living at the end of the third century. Chateaubriand has revealed magnificently, with the undeniable magic of his style, the charm of the meridional landscape that the classics had often neglected or described badly. His literary ideas are not a retreat or a full return to the classical aesthetics, they are constructed by the search of harmony between two aesthetics, classical and romantic.
Abstract FR:
La connaissance intime que chateaubriand a de l'antiquite et les impressions de son voyage en vieille terre d'europe sont vraiment les parties constituantes du tableau de la grece des "martyrs". Ce tableau demeure, en quelque maniere, dans le fil de la tradition classique; chateaubriand a suivi de tres pres les anciens et trouve, a travers eux, des idees, des recettes litteraires, des themes et un langage poetique. Il a fait revivre sous sa plume le monde homeriq ue au depens de l'authenticite historique. Il ne comprenait pas l'antiquite comme l'avaient ressentie les classiques; s'ils y avaient cherche le principe d'eternite et d'universalite, lui s'en tenait aux elements tout exterieurs. Par son etat d'ame et ses sentiments, si bien exprimes en prose, le heros ressemble plus a un personnage romantique qu'a un homme vivant a la fin du iiie siecle. Chateaubriand a revele magnifiquement, avec l'incontestable magie de son style , le charme du paysage meridional que les classiques avaient souvent neglige ou mal depeint. Ses idees litteraires ne sont pas un recul ou un retour complet a l'esthetique classique, elles se construisent par la recherche d'une harmonie entre deux esthetiques, classique et romantique.