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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Le discours du fou dans le récit romantique européen (Allemagne, France, Russie)

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The thesis studies the linguistics, philosophy and aesthetics of literary language of the madman in the Romantic era. It focuses on The Devil's Elixirs (Hoffmann, 1815),The Crumb Fairy (Nodier, 1832), The Diary of a Madman(Gogol, 1835), The Sylph(Odoevsky, 1837) and Aurelia(Nerval, 1855). Other narratives are more promptly summoned, as The Night Watches(Bonaventura, 1804) or Louis Lambert(Balzac, 1832).The madman is a problematic being: he is both unhealthy and inhabited by a divine inspiration. This paradox finds a new relevance in the first half of the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the development of Alienism tends to define mental pathologies from a medical point of view. On the other hand, the birth of the Fantastic promotes the figure of the mad artist. The Madman, when he speaks, questions autobiographical writing and redefines the Self, Space and Time. His speech has pragmatic issues: the madman seeks to demonstrate that he is not mad, in a society which condemns him. He also endeavours to convey a truth. His language is then used to describe the mythical forces that travel the world and, perhaps, to recreate it. The notion of creation is essential. The Romantic era modifies the definition of literature, which loses its representative function in favour of a purely linguistic function. The speech of the madman takes part in the founding of new aesthetics: it creates it in a critical gesture that questions its legitimacy. Impossible and unthinkable, it embodies the "silent speech" (J. Rancière) that becomes modern literature