DIALOGUE AND DIALOGISM IN THE NOVELS OF CRÉBILLON-FILS
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 1
Abstract
Conversation was highly relevant for the 17th and 18th century French aristocratic culture; a simple talk quickly grew into a “real” social ritual with its inner structure and “poetics.” Likewise, it influenced French literature that used a dialogue as a mode of narration, a way of expressing historical and philosophical ideas. Under the influence of the parlor culture, there developed a widespread genre of a novel-dialogue which origin may be traced back to the ancient tradition including the works of Plato who maintained ontological priority of the dialogue; in the dialogue, many philosophers have seen conditions necessary for the appearance of the individual and subjective conceptualization (“I” needs “You” for the sense of self). Dialogue is the form of narration in the novels by Crébillon-fls (1707–1777) La Nuit et le moment ou les matines de Cythère: dialogue (1755) and Le Hasard du coin du feu. Dialogue moral (1763). Both novels represent high society and focus mainly on the life of “libertines” who practice the principles of freedom of body and spirit yet at the same time are constrained by dominant behavior rules including the rules of conversation. Crébillon is skillfully using a widespread conversational form for popularizing the ideas of sensualism and libertinage. Also, Crébillon is employing dialogue as a device to make his works diverse and psychologically deep (cf.: a dialogue of a character with himself as he hovers between opinions; ongoing dialogue of the author with the reader; dialogue with other authors by direct and hidden quotes from their work; references to the author’s own works).
Authors and Affiliations
Veronika D. Altashina
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26083
- DOI 10.22455/ 2500-4247-2016-1-1-2-140-152
- Views 718
- Downloads 20
PORTRAIT DE L’ARTISTE EN SINOLOGUE CAMILO PESSANHA (1867–1926) ET LA CHINE
This essay analyzes the image of China in the work of the Portuguese poet C. Pessanha. Not only it focuses on Pessanha’s place in the history of Portuguese literature but also analyzes such comparativist aspect as the...
The Spirit of Laws and the Debate about Russian Despotism
The fate of The Spirit of Laws by Ch.-L. Montesquieu in Russia in the second half of the 18th century is an example of ambiguous reception that the French enlightener and his ideas received at that time prompting both...
THE NON-(POST)CLASSICAL WORLDVIEW IN NATIONAL LITERARY HISTORY: R. AKHMETZYANOV’S LYRICS
The article examines subjective architectonics in the work of the Tatar poet R. Akhmetzyanov’s (1935–2008) seeing it as a medium that discloses peculiar post-classical paradigm in the Tatar lyrics of the 1960–1680s. Th...
“Оpus magnum” by Ivan Verch
No Abstract
Sacred Land –Roman Empire – Byzantium — Rus’: The Concept of Heredity in Old Russian Literature
The article examines the history of the idea of connection, succession, and heredity between Old Rus’, on the one hand, and such ancient political and spiritual centers of the Christian world as Jerusalem, Rome, and Co...