Memoires d outre tombe12/21/2023 The memoirist's genius consisted of the capacity to adapt the practice of imitation to his autobiographical writings. Cavallin studies the genius of Chateaubriand who configures the mythography of his existence. The main character is caught between the rich and turbulent post-revolutionary world and thus gains a double identity. The Mémoires write the myth of this passage between the abolished Old World order and the New World yet to come. The French Revolution of 1789 is the historical rupture that created the fertile ground for a work like the Mémoires, which is a melancholic epic about a man from the ancient Christian era entering the modern world. However, he also defines the Mémoires as "mythographique" (17) rather than "mythologisante" (17), as the mythical element is not a creation of writing but is taken from real life. According to Cavallin, "mythologisation" (17) reduces the authentic element in the biography of a person but the transfiguration gives the portrait richness and a depth of significance that a true description of facts would not have permitted. However, it is an excessively dense reading for a non-specialist.Ĭhateaubriand bases his writings on Giambattista Vico and Pierre-Simon Bal-lanche's works and they help him visualize his own concepts of mythology and the history of humankind. Cavallin hopes to trace "un chemin plausible restaurant l'œuvre à la fois dans son intentionnalité littéraire et dans son unité symbolique." (11) This comprehensive analysis of Chateaubriand's work has much to offer to the specialist. Nineteenth Century French Studies 31.1&2 (2002) 163-164Ĭavallin's detailed study of Chateaubriand's Mémoires d'outre-tombe examines the autobiographical as well as allegorical aspects of this work.
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