Colette : du roman de formation au récit de déformation

Abstract

Based on a collection of ten novels published by Colette between 1900 and 1933, and on the definition given by Franco Moretti of the Bildungsroman, the article endeavours to assess the extent to which the writer took up the genre so characteristic of the 19th Century, and above all, which models or examples she followed. The real Bildungsromane are not so much those she wrote, but more those devoted to her in the form of her numerous biographies. If we look at her work, Colette is perhaps above all a great and melancholic author of novels of decline and fall. It is important to listen to this other voice, not always heard by critics on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Keywords

• Bildungsroman
• education
• Colette
• biography
• decline