Littérature et transmission patrimoniale. La question du genius loci siennois chez Hippolyte Taine, André Suarès et Dominique Fernandez

Abstract

This article analyses the way that literary writing could contribute to the valuation and the transmission of the urban heritage by highlighting a genius loci. From this notion of “genius of the place” to the city of Siena, experienced by three writers, Hippolyte Taine, André Suarès, Dominique Fernandez, we will study material and immaterial heritage elements that literary language can promote to readers, potential users of the city. In the interpretative and theoretical field of humanistic and literary geography, this comparative reading highlights the territorial and landscape construction through the non-fictional literary language of an example of genius loci. The latter denotes singularities of a place’s meaning, its existential thickness constituted by the subjective experience and apprehension of space. Of these three cultural models of writers, i.e their systems of presuppositions and cultural references emerge epistemic content and different influences constitutive of Siena heritage, which form or preform the gaze of the passer-by.

Keywords

• genius of the place
• literature
• Siena
• heritage
• humanistic geography