THE SPECIFICITY OF THE FICTIONAL SPACE IN THE NOVELS BY CRÉBILLON-FILS

• Main Author: Natalia T. Pakhsarian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2017-03-01
• Series: Studia Litterarum
• Subjects: fictional space; baroque; classicism; rococo; generic features of the novel; intimacy; naturalization; psychologizing
• Online Access: http://studlit.ru/2017-2-1/Pakhsarian.pdf
• ISSN: 2500-4247; 2541-8564

The interest of contemporary literary theory and literary history in the problem of fictional space and in the space in the 18 th century novels in particular reveals both achievements and gaps in this field. The latest studies have shed light on the intimization and feminization of the fictional space in rococo novels and have defined the spatial units in such novels by Crébillon-fils as L’Écumoire ou Tanza ï et Néadarné, Le Sopha, and Les Égarements du cœur et de l’esprit. However, the inner-novel spatial relationships have been generally neglected. Juxtaposition of the topography of such novels as L’Astrée by Honoré d’Urfé, La Princesse de Clèves by Madame de La Fayette, and the novels by Crébillon-fils demonstrates that rhetorical theatricality of the baroque and classicist space had been replaced in these works by de-theatralization and topographical abstraction of rococo novels. Purely verbal, playful voyeurism of the novels by Crébillonfils does not match with topographical precision of pose and gesture as described in the frivolous erotic writings of the period (as, for example in “Thérèse-philosophe”). Transformation of rhetorical spatial topoi of the baroque and classicist periods occurs in the works of Crébillon-fils, as it does in the works of other authors of rocaille novels, through naturalizing and psychologizing the novel’s generic features.