Alfred Nobel University Journal of Philology (Jun 2024)
INTERGENERATIONAL DIALOGUE IN THE NOVEL “BONJOUR TRISTESSE” BY FRANҪOISE SAGAN
Abstract
The article aims to study the poetic means of reproducing models of intergenerational dialogue in the parameters of “conflict/solidarity”. The material of the study is the novel “Bonjour tristesse” (“Hello Sadness”) by Françoise Sagan, which demonstrates models of intergenerational relations within and around one family. The objective of the research is to study the existential model of “friend or foe” in intergenerational relations, the peculiarities of generational identification and self-identification, to clarify the mythopoetic interpretation of the archetype of Mother, Eros and Thanatos, and the gender focus of intergenerational relations. The study uses the methodology of literary gerontology, existential interpretation of a literary text, mythocriticism, psychoanalysis, sociological and psychoanalytic works related to age anthropology. Historical, cultural, comparative historical and typological methods are used to study the embodiment of age-related aspects, as well as to establish thematic, figurative, and compositional features of the functioning of intergenerational dialogue in a literary text. The result of the study shows that the intergenerational dialogue in the novel takes place within the framework of the models of “solidarity” and “conflict”. The figurative and motivational complex “solidarity” is characteristic of Cécile and Raymond’s relationship with elements of the idealisation of the father. The model of “solidarity” with elements of manipulation prevails in the relationships of Cécile-Elsa and Cécile-Cyril. During the story, these relationships do not have a deep emotional connection. The “conflict” model is expressed in the Cécile-Anne interaction. Anne makes the mistake of taking her role as a mother to Cécile to heart. Thus, she breaks the established ties in the family, trying to impose “foe” roles on the father and daughter, and on the other hand, she attempts to try on the sacred image of a mother, which leads to Anne’s death. The novel presents an artistic interpretation of the Mother archetype in several projections. First of all, in the variation “patronage as a maternal function”, the Mother archetype is characteristic of Anne. However, if Anne’s patronage as a “foe” is acceptable to Cécile, she does not plan to see her as her father’s wife, or her mother (stepmother). The Cécile-Anne conflict can also be seen in the mythological tradition of the stepmother-stepdaughter. Another variation of the Mother archetype, the “sacrificing mother”, is characteristic of Cyril’s mother, but Cécile negatively perceives the type of “woman in the family kinkeeper role”. The mythopoetics of the conflictual parallel of Eros and Thanatos in the novel is closely related to the motif of the intergenerational relationship between Raymond and Elsa. Here, the connection between an older man and a young lover is a necessary confirmation of a man’s physical and emotional state. The line of mutual love between 40-year-old Anne and Raymond provides an example of harmonious ageing. However, the destructive conflict between Cécile and Anne becomes a modulated energy aimed at eliminating the threat (Anne). In this way, the author’s intention reveals the ontological problem of playing with death, the unconscious realisation of the primordial instinct of destructiveness. The motif of Thanatos is immanently present in the novel because of the death of Cécile’s mother. The relationship between Raymond and Anne causes Cécile’s rejection and ends in Anne’s suicide. Anne’s attempt to take her mother’s sacred place ends in death.
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