Charles Brockden Brown : écrivain gothique américain ?
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Abstract EN:
Charles borckden brown (1776-1810), bien que differents ecrits de sa main affirment son aversion pour les "chimeres et autres superstitions pueriles", a ete tres tot considere comme un ecrivain gothique. Cette classification s'est vue confirmee par leslie fiedler qui voit en l'ecrivain l'inventeur du gothique americain. Or, l'apposition de l'adjectif "americain" au terme gothique dissimule les veritables enjeux de l'oeuvre et ne suffit pas a en rendre compte. Le gothique anglais rassemble un certain nombre d'auteurs dont les oeuvres sont ancrees dans une periode definie de l'histoire litteraire d'un pays. Ces dernieres visent avant tout a depayser le lecteur en prenant pour cadre un "ailleurs" spatio-temporel. Le gothique americain, en revanche, ne constitue pas une ecole a proprement parler. Il s'agit plutot d'une etiquette apposee a certaines oeuvres pour souligner leur caractere angoissant. Ce label a ete successivement attribue a tant de grands ecrivains americains (poe, hawthorne, melville, faulkner, o'connor. . . ) qu'il en a perdu toute specificite. La presente these se propose de demontrer que charles brockden brown, par une reflexion esthetique qui se manifeste d'oeuvre en oeuvre, a reellement lance la litterature americaine sur une voie nouvelle : celle d'une analyse psychologique de la subjectivite. Le recours a une narration a la premiere personne et au theme du double qui gouverne le choix recurrent de personnages jumeaux, ventriloques ou somnambules, constitue l'objet principal de l'analyse successive de chacun des romans. Le realisme des situations decrites, un emploi du surnaturel resolument different de celui rencontre chez walpole, radeliffe et lewis, et la trace d'une reflexion philosophique qui amene l'auteur a une contestation des theories des lumieres autorisent a demarquer brown de ses predecesseurs anglais. Parallelement, l'etude conjointe de l'oeuvre et de la correspondance de l'auteur permet de mettre a jour les raisons profondes de son renoncement a la composition de romans noirs apres la publication d'edgar huntly en 1799, et a toute oeuvre de fiction peu apres le tournant du siecle.
Abstract FR:
Although he repeatedly asserted his aversion for "gothic castles and puerile superstitions, charles brockden brown has been considered a gothic writer from the very start. In 1960, leslie fiedler definitively labelled him "gothic" does not account for the radical shift brown initiated in literature. The english gothic school groups a certain number of authors whose works are all rooted in a definite period in the literary history of a country. The latter invariably place the reader in an unfamiliar context, both geographically and temporally foreign to him. In contrast, the american gothic does not constitute a school in its own right, but rather represents a label attached to certain novels to stress their power of dread and prevailing atmosphere of mystery. So many great american writers (poe, hawthorne, melville, faulkner. . . ) have been thus qualified that the term has completely lost its specific meaning. Our aim here is to show that brown, by reflecting, from work to work, on fictional forms, has launched in american literature the new trend of the psychological analysis of subjectivity. This study consequently focuses on the choice of twins, ventriloquists and sleepwalkers as recorders of their own stories in first-person narratives that endeavour to relate the gradual discovery of their inner dualities and the impossibility to achieve a thourough self-knowledge. Brown's realism, his use of the supernatural which differs radically from that of walpole, radcliffe and lewis, and a philosophical reflexion which contests the empiricist theories of the enlightenment, clearly distinguish him from his english predecessors. Reading his work in the light of his personal correspondance enables us to understand why he turned his back on the novels of terror after the publication of edgar huntly in 1799, and all forms of fictional writing shortly after the turn of the century.