Contradiction as a fundamental property of Ch. Sorel’s characters in the novel “The Comical History of Francion” (1623-1633)
Ermilova Kira Evgen’evna
A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Submitted: 19.05.2023
Abstract. The paper examines the problem of the duality of the characters of the French writer Ch. Sorel (1599/1602 – 1674) using the material of his comic novel “The Comical History of Francion” (“La vraie histoire comique de Francion”, 1623-1633). The aim of the research is to substantiate a new approach to the analysis of Ch. Sorel’s creative work by studying how the category of contradiction functions at the level of the character system in the novel “The Comical History of Francion”. In order to attain this aim, the paper introduces and substantiates the category of contradiction, which is the defining category for Sorel’s creative work following from his interpretation of the classical requirement of plausibility for a literary work. Then the research considers the character system in the novel “The Comical History of Francion”, notes the disadvantages of the “mirror” approach as exemplified by comparing the images of Naïs and Lauretta. After that, the character system is analyzed from the viewpoint of the characters’ internal contradictions that are based among other things on the features of the harmonious/non-harmonious ratio of the “being” and “seeming” stages; the problem of the duality of Sorel’s characters is solved. The scientific originality of the research lies in a fundamentally new approach to Sorel’s works suggesting a departure from the position of ignoring contradictory elements at different levels of the text; in this paper, we consider contradiction as a deliberate feature of Sorel’s creative work following from his aesthetic beliefs. As a result, it has been proved that contradiction is an integral property of Sorel’s characters that must be considered for a comprehensive analysis of the text.
Key words and phrases: противоречие, Шарль Сорель, комический роман, роман «Правдивое комическое жизнеописание Франсиона», система персонажей, contradiction, Charles Sorel, comic novel, novel “The Comical History of Francion”, character system
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