Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith

19th-century high life is characterized by a marked attempt at avoiding behavioural mistakes or social blunders, in accordance with courtly ideals of the past. Thus exchanges are over-codified, as is borne out by the use of the conventional phrase « Not at home ». In The Egoist, the expression does...

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Main Author: Jacqueline Fromonot
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2004-04-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/16592
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author Jacqueline Fromonot
author_facet Jacqueline Fromonot
author_sort Jacqueline Fromonot
collection DOAJ
description 19th-century high life is characterized by a marked attempt at avoiding behavioural mistakes or social blunders, in accordance with courtly ideals of the past. Thus exchanges are over-codified, as is borne out by the use of the conventional phrase « Not at home ». In The Egoist, the expression does not imply that Willoughby is absent, but it simply stands as a correct, polite refusal to see a relation, Lieutenant Patterne. However, the gap between the two strata of meaning cannot be perceived by Patterne, who is unfamiliar with the complexities of etiquette. By constantly shifting view-points in the fictional situations he has created, Meredith shows that the apparent correctness of a statement reveals a type of incorrectness by writing the casuistry which makes it possible to revisit a dead metaphor and study it in the light of truth, truthfulness and deception. With the help of pragmatics and analyses of contemporary philosophers of language like John Austin and Herbert Paul Grice, I examine the concepts of correctness and incorrectness, as well as those of illusion, truth, reality — and disillusionment.
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spelling doaj-art-00637366f93a43578876ffe4aec6f6d42025-08-20T02:56:46ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492004-04-015910.4000/147toCorrect ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George MeredithJacqueline Fromonot19th-century high life is characterized by a marked attempt at avoiding behavioural mistakes or social blunders, in accordance with courtly ideals of the past. Thus exchanges are over-codified, as is borne out by the use of the conventional phrase « Not at home ». In The Egoist, the expression does not imply that Willoughby is absent, but it simply stands as a correct, polite refusal to see a relation, Lieutenant Patterne. However, the gap between the two strata of meaning cannot be perceived by Patterne, who is unfamiliar with the complexities of etiquette. By constantly shifting view-points in the fictional situations he has created, Meredith shows that the apparent correctness of a statement reveals a type of incorrectness by writing the casuistry which makes it possible to revisit a dead metaphor and study it in the light of truth, truthfulness and deception. With the help of pragmatics and analyses of contemporary philosophers of language like John Austin and Herbert Paul Grice, I examine the concepts of correctness and incorrectness, as well as those of illusion, truth, reality — and disillusionment.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/16592
spellingShingle Jacqueline Fromonot
Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
title Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith
title_full Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith
title_fullStr Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith
title_full_unstemmed Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith
title_short Correct ou incorrect ? la casuistique de « not at home » dans The Egoist, de George Meredith
title_sort correct ou incorrect la casuistique de not at home dans the egoist de george meredith
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/16592
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