Este trabalho tem a irresponsável ambição de ser uma revisão da trajetória do romance em seus supostos quatro séculos de existência. Para tratar de dar conta de algo tão vago e tão vasto, define como seu objeto não o romance em si, mas a ideia abstrata de romance, tal como proposta por uma série de romancistas canônicos em ensaios, prefácios, cartas, biografias, testemunhos, entrevistas, e também em suas ficções. Propõe-se a ser ele próprio uma sequência de ensaios: sobre a duvidosa ascensão do gênero em um tempo exato e um espaço restrito; sobre um questionável apogeu de potencialidade infinita; sobre a tão alardeada crise do romance; sobre as marcas já perceptíveis de uma reascensão. Afirma-se então o arco narrativo que se quer negar: o objetivo do trabalho é tentar mover certas noções pré-fabricadas, revolver concepções decantadas, calcificadas em um sólido conjunto de convenções. O resultado não pode ser mais que um novo conjunto de convenções, composto, porém, por elementos bem mais maleáveis, por interrogações, incertezas, relativizações. / This work has the irresponsible ambition to be a review of the novels trajectory in its supposed four centuries of existence. To try to apprehend something so vague and vast, it defines as its object not the novel itself, but the abstract idea of the novel, as proposed by a number of canonical novelists in their essays, prefaces, letters, biographies, testimonies, interviews, and also in their fictions. The work itself intends to be a sequence of essays: on the dubious rise of the genre in an exact time and a restricted space; on a questionable apogee of infinite potentiality; on the much-commented crisis of the novel; on the already perceptible marks of a reascendance. It affirms, then, the narrative arch that it would like to deny: the intention is to move certain prefabricated notions, to revolve decanted conceptions, calcified in a solid set of conventions. The result cannot be more than a new set of conventions, composed, however, by far more malleable elements speculations, interrogations, uncertainties.

Este trabalho tem a irresponsável ambição de ser uma revisão da trajetória do romance em seus supostos quatro séculos de existência. Para tratar de dar conta de algo tão vago e tão vasto, define como seu objeto não o romance em si, mas a ideia abstrata de romance, tal como proposta por uma série de romancistas canônicos em ensaios, prefácios, cartas, biografias, testemunhos, entrevistas, e também em suas ficções. Propõe-se a ser ele próprio uma sequência de ensaios: sobre a duvidosa ascensão do gênero em um tempo exato e um espaço restrito; sobre um questionável apogeu de potencialidade infinita; sobre a tão alardeada crise do romance; sobre as marcas já perceptíveis de uma reascensão. Afirma-se então o arco narrativo que se quer negar: o objetivo do trabalho é tentar mover certas noções pré-fabricadas, revolver concepções decantadas, calcificadas em um sólido conjunto de convenções. O resultado não pode ser mais que um novo conjunto de convenções, composto, porém, por elementos bem mais maleáveis, por interrogações, incertezas, relativizações. / This work has the irresponsible ambition to be a review of the novels trajectory in its supposed four centuries of existence. To try to apprehend something so vague and vast, it defines as its object not the novel itself, but the abstract idea of the novel, as proposed by a number of canonical novelists in their essays, prefaces, letters, biographies, testimonies, interviews, and also in their fictions. The work itself intends to be a sequence of essays: on the dubious rise of the genre in an exact time and a restricted space; on a questionable apogee of infinite potentiality; on the much-commented crisis of the novel; on the already perceptible marks of a reascendance. It affirms, then, the narrative arch that it would like to deny: the intention is to move certain prefabricated notions, to revolve decanted conceptions, calcified in a solid set of conventions. The result cannot be more than a new set of conventions, composed, however, by far more malleable elements speculations, interrogations, uncertainties.

Cette étude se fixe un triple objectif. Il s’agira d’abord de décrire les représentations textuelles du rire dans Le Roman comique de Scarron, en établissant d’une part les conditions de possibilité du comique et, d’autre part, en montrant la dette qu’a contractée le genre de l’histoire comique du XVIIe siècle auprès de la poétique de la comédie classique. Nous préciserons ensuite la nature et le sens à donner aux stratégies dramaturgiques mises en œuvre par Scarron pour rendre compte de l’humanité comique, tantôt disqualifiée, toujours remise en question. Nous mettrons enfin en évidence l’originalité de la structure du roman de Scarron qui accueille contradictoirement des esthétiques ennemies. Expérience de l’insubordination et affirmation d’une conscience critique, le rire de Scarron, en même temps qu’il brouille les hiérarchies culturelles, littéraires et idéologiques de l’âge classique, induit une rhétorique de la lecture comique et délivre une vision sceptique du monde. Innervée par ce rire protéiforme et ambivalent, notre étude propose donc une interprétation globale du roman scarronien à partir de l’analyse détaillée de sa poétique. / The following study has three main goals. We will first describe the textual representations of laughter in Scarron’s Le Roman comique, establishing on the one hand the conditions of possibility of the comic and by showing, on the other hand, the debt that the seventeenth century’s comic novels have contracted towards the poetics of the comedy. We will then identify the nature and meaning of the dramaturgical strategies used by Scarron to represent his comical characters, sometimes disqualified but always questionned. Finally, we will highlight the originality of Scarron’s novel structure that hosts contradictory aesthetics. While it blurs the frontiers of cultural, literary and ideological hierarchies, Scarron’s laughter, an experience of insubordination and an affirmation of a critical consciousness, induces a certain way of reading comedy and delivers a skeptical view of classical age’s world. Animated by this protean and ambivalent laughter, our study proposes a global interpretation of Scarron’s novel based on a detailed analysis of his poetics.

Cette étude se fixe un triple objectif. Il s’agira d’abord de décrire les représentations textuelles du rire dans Le Roman comique de Scarron, en établissant d’une part les conditions de possibilité du comique et, d’autre part, en montrant la dette qu’a contractée le genre de l’histoire comique du XVIIe siècle auprès de la poétique de la comédie classique. Nous préciserons ensuite la nature et le sens à donner aux stratégies dramaturgiques mises en œuvre par Scarron pour rendre compte de l’humanité comique, tantôt disqualifiée, toujours remise en question. Nous mettrons enfin en évidence l’originalité de la structure du roman de Scarron qui accueille contradictoirement des esthétiques ennemies. Expérience de l’insubordination et affirmation d’une conscience critique, le rire de Scarron, en même temps qu’il brouille les hiérarchies culturelles, littéraires et idéologiques de l’âge classique, induit une rhétorique de la lecture comique et délivre une vision sceptique du monde. Innervée par ce rire protéiforme et ambivalent, notre étude propose donc une interprétation globale du roman scarronien à partir de l’analyse détaillée de sa poétique. / The following study has three main goals. We will first describe the textual representations of laughter in Scarron’s Le Roman comique, establishing on the one hand the conditions of possibility of the comic and by showing, on the other hand, the debt that the seventeenth century’s comic novels have contracted towards the poetics of the comedy. We will then identify the nature and meaning of the dramaturgical strategies used by Scarron to represent his comical characters, sometimes disqualified but always questionned. Finally, we will highlight the originality of Scarron’s novel structure that hosts contradictory aesthetics. While it blurs the frontiers of cultural, literary and ideological hierarchies, Scarron’s laughter, an experience of insubordination and an affirmation of a critical consciousness, induces a certain way of reading comedy and delivers a skeptical view of classical age’s world. Animated by this protean and ambivalent laughter, our study proposes a global interpretation of Scarron’s novel based on a detailed analysis of his poetics.