17 research outputs found
Ad augusta per absurda
Alphonse Allais's works are unjustly termed "funny" by some. His contemporaries regarded him as one of the best representatives of nonsense literature. Today, thanks to studies based on psychoanalysis, sociocriticism and more recent research on humour, his works can be considered as partaking of a certain commitment. As a result, jokes could be viewed as an aesthetic or political way to question reality and they could be reconsidered to be as highly esteemed as the ideas of great philosophers like Jeremy Bentham or Friedrich Nietzsche or the works of more "serious" authors like Jules Laforgue, Remy de Gourmont or Raymond Roussel. To make the reader know himself and to understand the world through nonsense - this is the paradoxical and original aspect of Allais'a works
Through absurd to greatness
Alphonse Allais's works are unjustly termed "funny" by some. His contemporaries regarded
him as one of the best representatives of nonsense literature. Today, thanks to studies based
on psychoanalysis, sociocriticism and more recent research on humour, his works can be
considered as partaking of a certain commitment. As a result, jokes could be viewed as an
aesthetic or political way to question reality and they could be reconsidered to be as highly
esteemed as the ideas of great philosophers like Jeremy Bentham or Friedrich Nietzsche or
the works of more "serious" authors like Jules Laforgue, Remy de Gourmont or Raymond
Roussel. To make the reader know himself and to understand the world through nonsense -
this is the paradoxical and original aspect of Allais'a works
"It is life that exaggerates": some remarks on Balzac's death in Octave Mirbeau's novel La 628-E8
In the novel La 628-E8 declaring his disgust with art, as if looking for a confirmation of his feeling, Octave Mirbeau
dedicates three subchapters of his work to Balzac, in order to create a biography, taking into account only the figure of the
writer as a man, leaving out his oeuvre. But while the text seems to be a farewell with literature and with its effect of
artificiality, praising the virtues of the text-document containing elements which are exclusively the author's own, a fragment
which describes Balzac's death makes the word emerge in all its complexity: the word as an evidence of reality or as an
invention. Thus, through its nature of elusiveness, it becomes a reconciliation between literature and life
Chapitre IX. Les rituels de M. Bougran
La littĂ©rature entretient avec la religion une forte homologie rappelĂ©e, dans ses divers aspects, par la prĂ©sentation quâEmmanuel Godo a donnĂ©e en ouverture du volume LittĂ©rature, rites et liturgies. Plusieurs de ses thĂšmes, de mĂȘme que la posture de certains Ă©crivains, suffiraient Ă souligner le bien-fondĂ© dâun tel rapprochement, mais les formes quâelle revĂȘt parfois et le jeu de relations entre les auteurs au sein du champ institutionnel en renforceraient implicitement lâĂ©vidence. Huysmans ..
LâĂ©motion lyrique dans La 628-E8
« Et pourtant dans cet Ă©croulement des formes, une grĂące survivaitâŠÂ »Octave Mirbeau, Le Journal dâune femme de chambre LâincongruitĂ© formelle de La 628-E8 a suscitĂ© bien des commentaires, tantĂŽt irritĂ©s devant la dĂ©sinvolture de la composition tantĂŽt, Ă lâinverse, soucieux de rendre justice Ă lâeffort de formalisation auquel se livrait Mirbeau. Le romancier nâa jamais Ă©crit de textes thĂ©oriques sur la littĂ©rature ni sur lâesthĂ©tique, mais sâil est vrai que « la plus secrĂšte fonction de lâart ..
Philippe Dufour, La Pensée romanesque du langage
Le xixe siĂšcle fut celui oĂč sâaccomplit la sĂ©paration entre les mots et les choses. Lorsquâelles en rendent compte, les Ă©tudes littĂ©raires traitent avant tout du discours poĂ©tique tant il est vrai que jamais autant quâalors les poĂštes nâont questionnĂ© le langage mĂȘme. Câest donc le grand mĂ©rite de lâouvrage de P. Dufour que de repenser cette mutation des Lettres en interrogeant le roman. La rupture dans lâimaginaire du langage quâopĂšre, selon lui, la RĂ©volution française interdit dĂ©sormais au..
"It is life that exaggerates": some remarks on Balzac's death in Octave Mirbeau's novel La 628-E8
In the novel La 628-E8 declaring his disgust with art, as if looking for a confirmation of his feeling, Octave Mirbeau
dedicates three subchapters of his work to Balzac, in order to create a biography, taking into account only the figure of the
writer as a man, leaving out his oeuvre. But while the text seems to be a farewell with literature and with its effect of
artificiality, praising the virtues of the text-document containing elements which are exclusively the author's own, a fragment
which describes Balzac's death makes the word emerge in all its complexity: the word as an evidence of reality or as an
invention. Thus, through its nature of elusiveness, it becomes a reconciliation between literature and life
Mirbeau ou le papillon incendiaire
Sâil est vrai que lâinterview « oblige chacun Ă se rĂ©vĂ©ler tout entier », comme le dĂ©clare Mirbeau Ă propos de LâEnquĂȘte sur lâĂ©volution littĂ©raire (1891) de Jules Huret, alors celles que le romancier a dĂ©livrĂ©es seraient en mesure de nous livrer une part de sa personnalitĂ© comme une part de son esthĂ©tique. Tandis que les critiques avisĂ©s soulignent Ă lâenvi le dogmatisme de lâĂ©crivain et la brutalitĂ© de son style, ses Ćuvres, bien que polĂ©miques, recĂšlent une complexitĂ© bien Ă©loignĂ©e de lâĂ©vidence du roman Ă thĂšse, complexitĂ© qui prend sa source dans le recours gĂ©nĂ©ralisĂ© Ă la parole. OmniprĂ©sente dans les rĂ©cits, sous des formes aussi variĂ©es que la conversation, le dialogue ou lâanecdote, la voix est Ă la fois un Ă©lĂ©ment privilĂ©giĂ© de la composition du texte et une source dâambiguĂŻtĂ© pour le lecteur. Le dialogisme et le questionnement du rapport entre fiction et authenticitĂ©, divertissement et engagement que souligne lâoralitĂ©, sont autant de moyens dâinterroger lâart du roman. Or, il semblerait que les interviews prolongent, quand elles ne lâalimentent pas, la rĂ©flexion sur les pouvoirs de la parole. Ainsi, plutĂŽt que de faire de Mirbeau, Ă la suite de Lucien Daudet, un auteur « incendiaire », lâanalyse de la voix mirbellienne livrĂ©e dans les interviews montrerait combien la parole vive et les papillonnements du dialogue servent, avec nuance, un idĂ©al de justice et dâĂ©mancipationIf it is true that interviews âcompel people to reveal themselves entirelyâ, as Mirbeau puts it about LâEnquĂȘte sur lâĂ©volution littĂ©raire (1891) by Jules Huret, then those that the novelist gave would possibly show us some aspects of his character as well as of his aesthetics. Sensible critics insist on the writerâs dogmatism and on the brutality of his style. Nevertheless, even if his works are controversial, they conceal a certain complexity which is very far from the simplicity of a roman Ă thĂšse and which is rooted in Mirbeauâs generalized resorting to speech. Voices are omnipresent in his fictions and they are used in extremely various forms like conversations, dialogues and anecdotes. They are the privileged element in the composition of the text as well as a source of ambiguity for the reader. This oral character underlines the dialogism and the questioning of the relationship between fiction and authenticity, entertainment and commitment which are the different means of questioning the novel as an art form. Howewer, the interviews might extend and even feed reflections about the power of speech. So, instead of presenting Mirbeau as an âincendiaryâ writer, as LĂ©on Daudet did, the analysis of Mirbeauâs voice as it appears in the interviews would show us how speech and the vivid character of the dialogues are subtly as the service of an ideal of justice and emancipatio