In response to the paradox implicit in the phrase "realistic fiction," critics have frequently posited that an oppositional structure is an identifying characteristic of the genre. My approach, developed in two theoretical chapters, assumes that the mind/world relationship is fundamental to human experience and to the novel, and that the best way to describe the dialectics of the genre is in terms of a conflict between imagination and reality. I define "imagination" as the structuring power of the mind, and cite studies in psychology, literary and linguistic theory, aesthetics, and philosophy that demonstrate how essential the activity of organization is to our apprehension of the world. Following Wallace Stevens, I define "reality" as an external pressure that constitutes a resistance to this basic activity of organization. A constant interplay of imagination and reality operates in perception and cognition, just as organic life is characterized by a constant interchange between the internal structures of an organism and its environment. There are two modes of imaginative response to the pressure of reality: transformation and adaptation. The conscious mind structures phenomenal experience, and hence "transforms" it: it is a characteristic of the human nervous system to establish simple patterns of organization, which are adjusted and elaborated in a process of adaptation. We can define "romance" as the impulse to generate form, and "realism" as the impulse to adjust or "correct" formal structures: these definitions make it possible to describe the novel as characterized by a tension between romance and realism, or in E. H. Gombrich's terminology, between "making" and "matching." The advantage of such a description is its ability to recognize the fictionality of all human systems, including the literary text, while acknowledging that there is a mimetic element that is essential to the genre. If we posit imagination and reality as the terms of a dialectic that informs the genre, it is possible to discuss characters, authors, and readers as engaged in this dialectic, and to trace the tension between romance and realism in each sphere of activity. In two chapters of practical criticism, I analyze Middlemarch and Our Mutual Friend with regard to the imagination/reality conflict as it applies to the authors, characters, and readers of these texts. I demonstrate that there is a close correlation between those imaginative activities of the characters that we perceive as affirmed by the text, the strategies of interpretation and expression that have generated the text, and the imaginative activity we perform as readers. In a brief conclusion, I suggest how the theory and methodology I have developed can be applied to a wide variety of texts.

A prevailing trend in contemporary novel theory criticism is the attempt to free the term "realism" from its static association with the fin de siecle movement which has led, in its extreme examples, to a kind of fictional literalism. Ian Watt's formula has provided a locus classicus for a generation of critics: the central notion of realism, he insists, is in "the correspondence between the literary work and the reality it imitates."('1) In giving disproportionate, singular emphasis neither to the external world nor to the literary imagination, and in emphasizing, rather, the correspondence between the two, Watt implies that realism is an epistemological function of the novel, a changing set of conventions to examine both life and art. The dissertation contends that novelists, for centuries, have been aware that the dual function of their art is to examine life as well as the tools (conventions) of their craft; it contends, further, that certain exemplary novelists have chosen a consistent method of examination, a revitalization of the classical convention of ekphrasis--the introduction of a work of art within a work of art. By placing the interpolated art form before his characters, the novelist can create the format of a debate on artistic representation. The paradigm is in Don Quixote, the debate between the Canon and the priest on the verisimilitude of chivalric romances as opposed to that of histories. In the ekphrastic episode of Master Peter's puppet show, Cervantes illustrates the modes of narration intrinsic to both forms of art. The same format is created by Jane Austen in Emma through Emma's and Knightley's debate on Frank Churchill's conciliatory epistles; it is repeated again by Tolstoy in Anna Karenina through Vronsky's and Mihailov's discussion of pictorial representation, particularly Anna's portrait. Joyce, in Ulysses, pairs the Aristotelian Stephen against the Platonist Russell to reveal his mimetic standards through a debate on Hamlet. This dialectic, informing the structure of the novel, is portrayed ekphrastically also in terms of the unification of Tonic and Dominant keys in a classical sonata. And Thomas Pynchon in Gravity's Rainbow matches the behaviorist manifesto, The Book, against the preverbal communication of primitive ritual, and he resolves the implied argument with the metaphor of the cinema. An examination of the convention in separate chapters on these five major texts will show that the debate of characters on the verisimilar correspondence of the interpolated art form with a defined, external reality is an analogue of the author's transformation of life through the medium of language: as the art form corresponds to life, so the word corresponds with fact. The argument is, consistently, a dialectic between two theories of language: one of which is epistemological and referential and the other transcendental and emotive. The art form within the art form is a metaphor used by the author to reveal his particular loyalty; it is also a center of focus through which a critic can arrive at a broad understanding of a text's mimetic norms. ('1)Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), p. 11.

The felt antithesis between science and poetry has a long history. Almost every major theorist of literature, from Sidney through Arnold to Cleanth Brooks, has defined literature in contradistinction to science. This rejection of "scientism" and the simultaneous veneration of the symbolic imagination available in literature reached its zenith in the New Criticism, but it has diminished only slightly in those more contemporary "post-structuralist" theories which view themselves in opposition to New Critical arguments. In fact, the rejection of the scientific model has become the cornerstone in most definitions of literature. There are a good many ironies in this situation. The opposition of referential and non-referential language has resulted in a certain impotence in those theorists who wish to argue against the heightened anti-humanism of post-structuralist theory. Another irony is that while rejecting the calculative enterprise of science, the formalist impulse allowed the hated objectivism of classical science to sneak in the back door. The final and most important irony is that at the very time when the New Critical theorists were reinvigorating the romanticist rejection of science, science itself was undergoing a radical change in theoretic orientation. Modern science, in fact, has encouraged a movement away from objectification, pure referential meaning, and empirically verifiable truth. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate these ironies by exploring some of the ramifications which physics and mathematics, the most "exact" of the sciences, may have for literary theory. The primary goal is to correct the misunderstanding which literary theorists have had about the implications of modern science; a secondary goal is to suggest that some of those implications may prove useful to an understanding of symbolic systems and the poet-text-reader relationship. The dissertation provides a survey of critical theories, with greater emphasis given to more recent arguments. These are compared with the implications of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, the mathematical insights of Kurt Godel, and the theses of the so-called "new philosophers" of science.

No description available.

This thesis examines the physical descriptions - or portraits - of the characters in À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. It explores the paradox in which these descriptions both build and reveal the characters, and, at the same time, blur them into unrecognizable personalities. The thesis is divided into two sections. The first one deals with the construction of our perception of body images through the examination of Proust's descriptive techniques. The second section discusses the "defeat of the portrait" as an epistemological tool. In particular, this section looks at the "interference" (caused by optical illusions, subject movement or narrator subjectivity) which creates a lag between the image and the person described, casting doubt on the identity and the individuality of the characters. Finally, this study proposes a reading of the Proustian novel focused on the visuality of each character using concepts borrowed from the visual arts as well as literary theory. / Ce mémoire a pour objet le portrait dans À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. Il veut mettre en lumière le paradoxe par lequel le portrait contribue à la construction des personnages tout en faisant d'eux des êtres inaccessibles et inconnaissables, les révélant et les dissimulant tout à la fois. Le mémoire se divise en deux grandes parties. La première est consacrée au mouvement de construction du portrait, c'est-à-dire aux effets descriptifs qui consolident notre vision des personnages. La deuxième partie porte plutôt sur la « défaite du portrait » en tant qu'instrument épistémologique. Elle s'intéresse aux effets de brouillage (provoqués par les illusions optiques, le mouvement de la personne décrite ou l'empreinte de la subjectivité du narrateur) qui créent un décalage entre le portrait et le personnage décrit et qui mettent en doute l'unité et l'identité des personnages. Cette étude propose donc une lecture du roman proustien centrée sur la visualité de ce qui est décrit et utilise des concepts qui relèvent à la fois de l'art visuel et de la théorie littéraire.

The first part of this thesis analyses a few elements which allow Élise Turcotte, in Le bruit des choses vivantes, to depict a female character who is both vulnerable and resilient, while she is attempting to overcome a heartbreak. We will examine how the character's emotional state sets her up to evolve, to develop a better knowledge of the rapport she has with herself and her surrounding world. The second part is a story in prose in which a female character tries to understand her rapport to love and writing. This character's principal trait is her vulnerability. In order to depict both this vulnerability and her quest for an identity, the story is narrated in the first person and gives an important place to metadiscourse, detachment, and neurotic slippage. What this creative work tries to achieve is to render writing about intimate life literary. / Deux parties composent ce mémoire. La première analyse quelques éléments permettant à Élise Turcotte, dans Le bruit des choses vivantes, de dépeindre un personnage à la fois vulnérable et résilient alors que celui-ci tente de surmonter un chagrin d'amour. Nous examinerons comment l'état émotif dans lequel se trouve le personnage le dispose à évoluer, à acquérir une meilleure connaissance des rapports qu'il entretient avec lui-même et le monde qui l'entoure. La deuxième partie est un court récit en prose dans lequel un personnage féminin tente de saisir son rapport à l'amour et à l'écriture. La caractéristique principale de ce personnage est également sa grande vulnérabilité. Afin de faire ressortir cette vulnérabilité et la quête identitaire que ce personnage entreprend, le récit est narré à la première personne et donne une place importante au métadiscours, à la distanciation et au dérapage névrotique. Le but visé est de rendre littéraire l'écriture de l'intime.

No description available.

This Master's thesis seeks, through the analysis of La Route des Flandres, La Bataille de Pharsale and Les Géorgiques, to illustrate how Claude Simon manages to produce a story with a plot based essentially on the internal logic of the language. Claude Simon ignores the narrative style typical of a traditional fable, instead benefitting a reality based on the description of artwork. With the frequent use of ekphraseis, the writer draws us into a discursive adventure where the external references tend to disappear to be replaced by those of representation. From the outset, the narrative takes a unique shape and brings into question established principles of realist illusions. / Ce mémoire de maîtrise cherche, à travers l'analyse de La Route des Flandres, La Bataille de Pharsale et Les Géorgiques, à illustrer comment Claude Simon parvient à produire un récit et une intrigue fondés essentiellement sur une logique interne de la langue qui fait fi des catégories narratives au profit d'une réalité issue de la description d'œuvres d'art. Grâce à l'emploi fréquent d'ekphraseis, l'écrivain nous plonge dans une aventure discursive où les référents externes tendent à disparaître pour être remplacés par ceux de la représentation. D'entrée de jeu, une nouvelle production prend son essor et met en question les nombreux acquis de l'illusion réaliste.

No description available.

Travel as a primary human activity has long been examined in all its different facets and functions: exploration, discovery, conquest, quest for the unknown. It has been considered a means of self-discovery and self-determination. The scholarly literature on this topic has revealed that far from corresponding simply to a physical displacement, traveling represents above all a cognitive moment. / Building on travel as a privileged moment to acquire knowledge, this dissertation focuses on how physical displacement to non-familiar places and the encounter with a different civilization can change the mental structures and cultural categories of the traveler. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship between the traveler and the Other, in this specific case the populations of Africa. / My discussion takes into consideration the writings of three Italian authors who traveled to Africa at three very different but equally important moments in African history. Gaetano Casati was an explorer and witnessed the first phases of European colonization in North Africa. Alberto Moravia visited Africa after the sixties and witnessed the decolonization process. Finally, Gianni Celati traveled to the continent at the end of the 20th century and experienced the profound contradictions besetting contemporary post-colonial and neo-colonial Africa. / Although the historical context is necessary to understand the relational dynamics into play, the main argument of this thesis, i.e., the encounter with the Other, is explored within the post-colonial and cultural studies framework. This approach sheds new light on the texts, making new and different critical interpretations possible. Within this distinctive perspective, travel becomes the moment in which the encounter with the Other takes place. This framework, along with the phenomenological approach developed by Emmanuel Lévinas, has allowed me to emphasize the dialectical relationship between the Self and the Other. / A very contradictory reality has emerged, which continues to be problematic in recent years in spite of the fact that today people can travel more often and faster. In the final analysis, the nature of the traveler's relationship with the Other emerges ever more clearly as the result of a fundamental ethical choice. / Le voyage est, depuis toujours, une des plus importantes activités auxquelles l'humain s'adonne: qu'il s'agisse d'exploration, de découverte, de conquête, d'une recherche de l'inconnu ou d'une quête d'identité, les fonctions symboliques et métaphoriques du voyage ont fait déjà l'objet de nombreuses études. Ces dernières se sont d'ailleurs toutes attardées à un aspect primordial: le voyage ne signifie pas seulement un déplacement physique, il est avant tout un moment cognitif. / La présente thèse se penche précisément sur cet aspect pour en mieux faire ressortir les différents enjeux. Partant de la prémisse que le voyage constitue un moment propice à l'acquisition de nouvelles connaissances, nous démontrons comment le déplacement physique vers et à l'intérieur de lieux étrangers ainsi que la rencontre avec l'Autre - dans le cas qui nous préoccupe ici, les différentes populations de l'Afrique - influencent et modifient les structures culturelles du voyageur. / Le corpus analysé est formé des récits de voyage de trois auteurs qui ont visité l'Afrique à trois moments historiques différents mais tous aussi significatifs: l'exploration et la colonisation, la décolonisation, et enfin l'Afrique contemporaine aux prises avec la néo-colonisation et la pauvreté. Bien qu'une mise en contexte historique s'avère importante pour comprendre les récits de Gaetano Casati, Alberto Moravia et Gianni Celati, l'axe principal autour duquel tourne la présente thèse - la relation à l'Autre - sera abordé à partir d'un cadre théorique inspiré de la critique post-coloniale et des études culturelles. Ces approches combinées nous permettent de lire ces textes d'un point de vue différent et, par conséquent, d'en livrer une nouvelle interprétation. / Ce cadre critique, uni à l'approche phénoménologique d'Emmanuel Lévinas, nous permet ainsi de considérer la rencontre avec l'Autre qui émerge de l'expérience du voyage comme un moment charnière de la relation entre le soi et l'autre, une relation dont la réalité vécue s'avère hautement complexe et contradictoire, dans toutes les époques prises en considérations, et donc aussi dans la contemporanéité. En effet, bien que les voyages soient beaucoup plus fréquents aujourd'hui, et bien que les possibilités de rencontre avec l'Autre s'en trouvent multipliées, cette relation reste encore difficile à définir. Les termes à partir desquels la relation à l'Autre se développe demeurent, ultimement, le choix éthique du voyageur.