Figures de l'histoire dans la prose narrative française contemporaine

Abstract

This paper is based upon an historical hypothesis which could be formulated as such : the privilege granted to indirect modes of signifying in contemporary French narrative prose by the violence of XXth century's history. Hence the interest of the stylistic notion of figure (of speech), which implies that literary uses of figures elaborate, implicitly, a reflection on history : that is to say that literary history – as history of aesthetic forms – should also be an history of figures. This paper aims to sketch such a study, by choosing three examples (three figures, and three contemporary oeuvres): syllepsis (illustrated by Jean Rouaud's novels), hyperbaton (which analysis is based upon some narratives by Claude Simon and Laurent Mauvignier) and allegory (here exemplified by Antoine Volodine's novels).

Keywords

• contemporary literature
• history
• stylistics
• figure
• syllepsis
• hyperbaton