Ninel A. Litvinenko, DSc in Philology, Professor of the Department of History of Foreign Literature, The State University of Education, Radio Street, 10 a, 105005, Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6400-9176
The article is based on the study of the structure and specificity of the diegesis in the French romantic novel based on the analysis of representative texts, belonging to the early and late stages of the evolution of the genre. The subject of the study is Chateaubriand’s monodic novel “René” and Hugo’s epic novel “Les Miserables”. Despite all the differences, these works reveal typological similarities in the subject matter and structure of diegesis / plot formation. Both novels depict the drama of the loneliness of an individual who has fallen out of society and is opposed to it. The reference points of the diegesis are built on a diametrically opposed basis – a retrospective confession of a self-contained hero, obsessed with the “disease of the century” – and a symbolic cross-section of the fate of the “outcasts”, embodying the history and value concepts of the era. The principles of the formation of eventfulness and density of the symbolic pattern, in which the destinies / archetypes of the characters are inscribed, are explored, where the cathartic function of the phenomena of the transformation model, depicting the unconscious and providential in a romantic novel is embodied. It is proved that the structure of the works being researched is characterized by the intensification of event-related psychological effects, “intermediate” climaxes, gravitating towards the central, highest point of tension, the formation of a cathartic mode, depicting social and psychological conflicts. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of revelation / mystical knowledge, as a psychological and cathartic model of transformation of value ideas of the romantic novel in French literature of the 19 th century.
romantic novel; diegesis; plot; cathartic modality; sacrament; revelation.
05.03.2024
20.04.2024
Litvinenko, N.A. “Cathartic Mode in the Diegesis of the French Romantic Novel”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 4(66), 2024, pp. 172–186. (In Russ.)
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