Le monde comme vestige chez Barbey d’Aurevilly
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Date
2022
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Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, Wydawnictwo Werset
Abstract
Métamorphosant le réel en un ensemble de traces, Barbey d’Aurevilly opère dans ses romans un devenir-vestige du monde, qui suscite dans l’imagination de son lecteur une quête de ce qui toujours se dérobe à lui. On distinguera, parmi ces vestiges, ceux du sentiment perdu sur le plan individuel, ceux de la tradition perdue sur le plan de l’histoire, et ceux de la faute sur le plan du récit chrétien. On s’efforcera surtout de montrer que ces représentations du révolu, tour à tour psychologique, politique et métaphysique, sont sous-tendues par un univers sensible qui se manifeste par un feuilletage de vestiges. Corporels, par la ruine physique des personnages, ils sont aussi paysagers, en inscrivant la perte dans les territoires où ces personnages se meuvent, et ils appellent enfin des paroles médiatrices de la part de gardiens de la mémoire qui en suggèrent une interprétation voilée ou en font deviner le sens.
Transforming reality into traces of what once was, Barbey d’Aurevilly’s novels create a world of vestiges which entice the reader to pursue what always escapes his grasp. This article distinguishes, among these vestiges, the lost feeling of love in individuals’ lives, the loss of tradition through the turmoil of the French Revolution, and the neglected effects of sin according to the Christian narrative. It then attempts to show how these representations of the past, successively psychological, political and theological, are summoned by a layering of uncertain recollections. These take the form of bodily experience, as characters are faced with their own physical decay over time; of territorial symbols, as loss is woven into the landscape in which those characters evolve; and of mysterious utterances, as custodians of memory both suggest and veil by their words the meaning of events.
Transforming reality into traces of what once was, Barbey d’Aurevilly’s novels create a world of vestiges which entice the reader to pursue what always escapes his grasp. This article distinguishes, among these vestiges, the lost feeling of love in individuals’ lives, the loss of tradition through the turmoil of the French Revolution, and the neglected effects of sin according to the Christian narrative. It then attempts to show how these representations of the past, successively psychological, political and theological, are summoned by a layering of uncertain recollections. These take the form of bodily experience, as characters are faced with their own physical decay over time; of territorial symbols, as loss is woven into the landscape in which those characters evolve; and of mysterious utterances, as custodians of memory both suggest and veil by their words the meaning of events.
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Keywords
traces, vestiges, Barbey d’Aurevilly, romans, histoire, corps, territoire, novels, history, body, landscape
Citation
"Quêtes littéraires" 2022, nº 12, s. 20-29