Hétérolinguisme et polyphonie dans les fictions d’Irène Némirovsky

Abstract

Through the prism of the concept of literary heterolingualism, characteristic of writers who live between several languages, this article examines the varying degrees to which foreign languages are present in Irène Némirovsky's published novels and short stories. While a large part of her work features foreign characters (Jews and Russians in particular), foreign languages are generally ellipsed, absorbed into the French of the narrative, but they may appear in comments or in the onomastic expressions of the characters. There are also carefully measured lexical and phraseological borrowings, attributable either to the narrator, who presents himself as a ferryman of cultures, or to the characters. English, on the other hand, is the most widely quoted foreign language, and is not necessarily an indication of otherness, like Russian or Yiddish, but a sign of social distinction.

Keywords

• Némirovsky (Irène)
• heterolingualism
• authorial image
• otherness
• realism