THE APHORISM AND PLAY IN THE ARTISTIC PARADIGM OF THE NOVELS BY CRÉBILLON-FILS
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 3
Abstract
The article examines the function of ludic poetics and the role of aphorisms in the novels by Crébillon-fls: “L’Ecumoire, ou Tanzaï et Néadarné.” “Les Egarements du cœur et de l’esprit,” and “Le Sopha.” It argues that the specifcity of the artistic paradigm of Crébillon’s novels draws from the synthesis of the ludic origin and aphoristic writing while their “inner measure” (N. D. Tamarchenko) is determined by skeptical and ironic attitude to the world typical for rococo. The ludic poetics creates the second level of encoding in the novels that makes them interesting to different audience. A naive reader enjoys a frivolous work that has a comical situation at its core; a more sophisticated reader peruses a “novel with a clue,” that is a novel with a metaphorical plot containing ironic insinuations and allusions to contemporary realities. Aphorisms in the dialogues reveal the absence of the shared, universal truth and demonstrate its contingency on the speaker’s viewpoint. Taken together, aphorisms of Crébillon’s characters reflect the author’s own dialogical relation to reality and relativity of the moral truths in his opinion. Blurring semantic meaning of the words related to moral and ethical sphere was typical for rococo; it allowed these words collide in a ludic manner within the aphoristic framework; it also prompted further dialogization of aphoristic statements and the establishment of dialogic relations among characters and between the author and the world. By broadening the local chronotope and establishing contacts between the novel’s conventional plot and reality, by contributing to the ongoing dialogue among the characters, the author, and the reader, by reflecting the controversies of the rococo worldview and sophisticating the style, the ludic poetics and aphoristic writing defned stylistic and generic specifcity of Crébillon’s novel — intellectual in form and philosophical in content.
Authors and Affiliations
Natalya V. Lidzerhos
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26109
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2016-1-3-4-141-161
- Views 282
- Downloads 16
LERMONTOV ROMANTICISM AND JENA SCHOOL. Part 2
This article examines the understudied subjects of Lermontov life and work: his stay at the Moscow noble boarding school and his direct engagement in Cepheus, a literary annual run by the literary circle of Raich, wher...
EDMUND SPENSER’S “THE FAERIE QUEEN” AS “CONTINUED ALLEGORY”: FROM EMBLEMATIC AND CONCEITED WRITING TO SYMBOLICAL
The article aims to direct attention of the Russian readers to the richness of Spenser’s allegorical palette in his poem “The Faerie Queene.” The words “allegory” and “symbol” are employed here in their modern sense, wi...
LERMONTOV’S ROMANTICISM AND JENA SCHOOL
This article examines the understudied subjects of Lermontov life and work: his stay at the Moscow noble boarding school and his direct engagement in Cepheus, a literary annual run by the literary circle of Raich, where...
DISCUSSION ON THE TYPES OF LITERARY TRANSLATION IN THE SOVIET TRANSLATION STUDIES
The article discusses the theory and history of literary translation in the Soviet Union, namely, the dispute between Moscow and St. Petersburg schools of translation. The main focus is on the chapter from an unfinishe...
The Image of Nestor Makhno in the Pages of Alexey N. Tostoy’s Trilogy The Road to Calvary: Documents and Materials
This article examines documentary sources of the image of Nestor Ivanovich Makhno in Alexey N. Tolstoy’s trilogy The Road to Calvary; it bears on the materials that are both published (Tolstoy’s notebooks) and hitherto...