The translation and reception of French realism in Scandinavia 1830-1900

I will present some results from an international project on the introduction of French literature in Scandinavia during the 19th century. A point of departure will be the database BREFS (Bibliographie du Réalisme Français en Scandinavie), containing the translations of novels, short stories, poetic works and theatre plays that were published in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in book form from 1830 to 1900. This database is now publicly accessible via Lund University at http://projekt.ht.lu.se/brefs/. I will concentrate on the Swedish part of the bibliography, consisting of as many as 1500 translations, and present a list of the seemingly most popular French writers in Sweden — writers who (with some exceptions) are probably unknown to most Swedes, and not even mentioned in historical surveys of Swedish literature: Eugène Scribe, Eugène Sue, Charles Perrault, Anne H. J. Duveyrier, Henri Meilhac, Olivier Gloux, Michel Carré, Alice Durand and Jean F. A. Bayard. In fact, when it comes to the number of translations published, these authors by far exceed the today well-known French realists Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert and Maupassant

Le désir selon l'Autre. Étude du Rouge et le Noir et de la Chartreuse de Parme à la lumière du « désir triangulaire » de René Girard

The aim of this study is to examine the two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme in the light of the theory of 'triangular desire', elaborated by René Girard in Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque (1961). According to this theory, desire in Stendhal's novels – that is desire in a very general sense – is not spontaneous, but derived from a third part, that Girard labels the 'mediator' or the 'Other'. Various aspects of Stendhal’s novels are discussed by Girard, not only desire in relation to love, but also rivalry in politics, the imitation of 'models' and the 'conversion' of the hero that is apt to take place just before the moment of his death. In comparison to other critics, Girard is original in his claim to explain all these aspects by a single model that he designates 'triangular desire' and regards as universally valid. Moreover, unlike other critics who have treated love and desire in the works by Stendhal, Girard does not adopt a psychoanalytical approach. Initially, it is observed that the study by Girard is still mentioned in recent works of literary theory and criticism, but that the validity of Girard’s interpretation of the novels by Stendhal is rarely discussed. A selective presentation of Girard’s theory and of his method for analysing literature is followed by a brief discussion of a number of important ambiguities in Girard’s arguments. The second chapter examines the 'internal mediation' which according to Girard is fundamental in Stendhal’s novels. In this type of mediation, the mediator is a rival competing with the subject for the same objects. The third chapter deals with 'external mediation', which involves the imitation of 'models'. The most striking example of an external mediator is Marguerite de Navarre, imitated by Mathilde de La Mole. Some of the characters who function as fathers to Julien Sorel also seem to occupy the role of external mediators, transferring to the hero e.g. the desire to read certain books. Although Girard is right in pointing out the importance of models, historical as well as literary, especially in Le Rouge et le Noir, and although desire to some extent does "depend" on the existence of rivals, the triangular structure of desire rarely seems obvious. Desire in the novels by Stendhal is not reducible to one structure, nor to one phenomenon. In addition to the mediator other factors are identified that seem to "favour" desire and that play the role of "obstacles" preserving a certain distance between the subject and the object ; for instance marriage, religion, and prison. What is more, the significance of eyes and of looking in the process of falling in love proves that, contrary to what Girard suggests, desire is sometimes incited by the object itself

Paris and Stockholm in the novels Illusions Perdues de Balzac and The Red Room by August Strindberg

ACLA 2017, Seminar with Richard Hibbitt: ”Other Capitals of the Nineteenth Century”Annika Mörte Alling, Lund UniversityParis and Stockholm in the novels Illusions Perdues de Balzac and The Red Room by August StrindbergI propose to study the conceptions of Paris and Stockholm in the two realist novels Illusions Perdues by Honoré de Balzac (1837-1843) and The Red Room (1879) by August Strindberg, perhaps the first modern novel in Swedish literature. In both cases, a young man, Arvid Falk and Lucien de Rubempré, starts a journey in the capital at the beginning of the novel, not just a geographical one – from a rural context to a city context in Balzac’s case and within the capital in Strindberg’s – but also an existential journey. The hero's movement from the local milieu to the global, cosmopolitan context represents a transformation of values and it means that many illusions and prejudices are exchanged for truths and insights, for instance about the corrupted world of artists and journalists. In both novels the hero becomes very attached to the capital, despite the dangers and harsh realities it represents – as if it were a person, sometimes a stranger, in the end an intimate friend. My observations focus on the main characters, and the impressions and emotions that the city – and the rural context – arise in them. From the point of view of for instance Walter Benjamin, I will also look at this theme of the capital in a larger context and make some comparisons with non-fictional accounts about the two capitals by contemporary intellectuals and writers in Scandinavia and France