Cognitive and Semiotic Aspects of Endings in Self‑Narrations: The Example of Germaine de Staël

• Main Author: Anna Cabak Rédei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de liège 2014-12-01
• Series: Signata
• Subjects: cognition; literary theory
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/signata/506

The aim of this essay is to illustrate and discuss the relations between life and narratives on the basis of some insights made in semiotics and developmental psychology, notably by M.M. Bakhtin, Jerome Bruner and Katherine Nelson. The scope of the essay is theoretically multidisciplinary, and strives to shed some light on the cognitive and semiotic aspects of literary writing. In order to do so, some poignant examples from 19th century French literature, namely the French author, literary and political philosopher Germaine de Staël’s autobiographical travel account Dix années d’exil (1820–1821) [Ten years exile] and her autobiographical novel Corinne (1807) have been selected. Moreover, and paradoxically perhaps, the discussion on life and narrative will focus on endings, literary and literally. Germaine de Staël ended her two autobiographical books in a peculiar way, as if her life was intertwined with the texts. Now, why focusing on endings? Firstly, because the ending of a story is important for an inquiry aiming at scrutinizing differences between life and narratives. Autobiographical genres such as autobiography (non-fictive) and autobiographical novels (fictive) are defined according to certain literary conventions, deciding the author’s specific narrative choices and the reader’s specific way of reading the text. Secondly, by studying the endings of these works, the complicated relation between life and narrative comes to the fore; how is it possible to capture the continual flow of life in a narrative, necessarily constructed, limited and, in some way, exceptional? Whether or not the end involves a closure or a conclusion of some sort — for instance concerning the life of a character (autobiographical or fictive)—it inevitably means a limit between life and text, a moment when the author stopped writing and when the reader stops reading.