Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle
The rise of the novel in the eighteenth-century and the gradual recognition of its usefulness are inseparable from the growing interest it takes in factual writing. While the denial of fictionality is part of a strategy to circumvent literary norms, the valorisation of actual facts and the use of de...
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| Language: | English |
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Institut du Monde Anglophone
2020-10-01
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| Series: | Etudes Epistémè |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/6936 |
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| author | Shelly Charles |
| author_facet | Shelly Charles |
| author_sort | Shelly Charles |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The rise of the novel in the eighteenth-century and the gradual recognition of its usefulness are inseparable from the growing interest it takes in factual writing. While the denial of fictionality is part of a strategy to circumvent literary norms, the valorisation of actual facts and the use of dedicated forms (journalism, memoirs, correspondences) play an essential part in constructing a new logic of actions and in redefining verisimilitude. Demonstrating the exemplarity of true stories and developing an appropriate documentary aesthetics henceforth become a major issue. In order to examine the evolution of the literary rewriting of facts during the century, this article provides an overview of the experiments conducted by Prévost in his journalistic work and a short description of the model later imposed by Samuel Richardson's “documentary” fiction. It is in the context of this extreme permeability between fact and fiction, that the case of a famous tragic event, the double suicide of two lovers in Lyon in 1770, and its rendering as an epistolary novel are discussed. Léonard’s Lettres de deux amants, habitants de Lyon, publiées par M. Léonard (1783), filled with allusions to Richardson, Rousseau, Goldsmith and Goethe, sheds light on the particular role played then by intertextuality (viz. the literary experiences to which the author or his characters refer) in establishing causality. Intertexts not only supply a virtual collection of “precedents” and examples, it also becomes the symptom of a generalized practice of immersive reading, likely to generate real events. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7501aef769a94f908ba20178afbc75d7 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1634-0450 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
| publisher | Institut du Monde Anglophone |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Etudes Epistémè |
| spelling | doaj-art-7501aef769a94f908ba20178afbc75d72025-08-20T03:07:49ZengInstitut du Monde AnglophoneEtudes Epistémè1634-04502020-10-013710.4000/episteme.6936Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècleShelly CharlesThe rise of the novel in the eighteenth-century and the gradual recognition of its usefulness are inseparable from the growing interest it takes in factual writing. While the denial of fictionality is part of a strategy to circumvent literary norms, the valorisation of actual facts and the use of dedicated forms (journalism, memoirs, correspondences) play an essential part in constructing a new logic of actions and in redefining verisimilitude. Demonstrating the exemplarity of true stories and developing an appropriate documentary aesthetics henceforth become a major issue. In order to examine the evolution of the literary rewriting of facts during the century, this article provides an overview of the experiments conducted by Prévost in his journalistic work and a short description of the model later imposed by Samuel Richardson's “documentary” fiction. It is in the context of this extreme permeability between fact and fiction, that the case of a famous tragic event, the double suicide of two lovers in Lyon in 1770, and its rendering as an epistolary novel are discussed. Léonard’s Lettres de deux amants, habitants de Lyon, publiées par M. Léonard (1783), filled with allusions to Richardson, Rousseau, Goldsmith and Goethe, sheds light on the particular role played then by intertextuality (viz. the literary experiences to which the author or his characters refer) in establishing causality. Intertexts not only supply a virtual collection of “precedents” and examples, it also becomes the symptom of a generalized practice of immersive reading, likely to generate real events.https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/6936Fictionfactual writingintertextualityimmersive readingPrévostRichardson |
| spellingShingle | Shelly Charles Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle Etudes Epistémè Fiction factual writing intertextuality immersive reading Prévost Richardson |
| title | Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle |
| title_full | Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle |
| title_fullStr | Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle |
| title_full_unstemmed | Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle |
| title_short | Vrai et usage du vrai : les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au XVIIIe siècle |
| title_sort | vrai et usage du vrai les interactions entre fait divers et fiction romanesque au xviiie siecle |
| topic | Fiction factual writing intertextuality immersive reading Prévost Richardson |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/6936 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT shellycharles vraietusageduvrailesinteractionsentrefaitdiversetfictionromanesqueauxviiiesiecle |