“L’Écheveau des Causes et des Effets”: Positivism and Irrationalism in Anatole France’s Short Stories
The article presents a comparative analysis of two stories written by Anatole France close in time and dealing with similar issues, namely “Le Manuscrit d’un médecin de village” and “L’OEuf rouge.” The purpose of the study is to clarify the narrator’s position in the texts where the voice is delegat...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Russian Academy of Sciences, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Studia Litterarum |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://studlit.ru/images/2023-8-4/06_Nikitina_Tuliakova_108-127.pdf |
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| Summary: | The article presents a comparative analysis of two stories written by Anatole France close in time and dealing with similar issues, namely “Le Manuscrit d’un médecin de village” and “L’OEuf rouge.” The purpose of the study is to clarify the narrator’s position in the texts where the voice is delegated to a character, and the truth eludes the reader due to numerous omissions and thus to understand the reason why France deploys obscured writing. The stories, although included in different cycles, share a number images, motifs and narrative strategies. Both short stories address the topic of heredity, which makes researchers observe in them the influence of naturalism on France’s artistic method. Nevertheless, the construction of the texts each time calls into question the attitude of both the narrator and the author to the naturalistic concept of personality, the aesthetics of naturalism and positivist philosophy in general, introduces the possibility of an alternative interpretation of events and images. A comparison of the two pieces enables us to conclude that France has an ambiguous, ironic view of ideas popular among his contemporaries and that the writer prefers an artistic and cultural text over positivist analyticity. |
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| ISSN: | 2500-4247 2541-8564 |