Browsing by Author "Collett, Anne Elizabeth"

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    C'est de la faute de Colette: L'Intertextualité dans trois ouvrages de Régine Detambel (La Modéliste, Le Jardin Clos, Elle ferait battre les montagnes)
    (2002) Collett, Anne Elizabeth; Cornille, J-L
    This study examines the intertextuality present in three works by Régine Detambel, a contemporary French writer. The works in question are La Modéliste, Le jardin clos and Elle ferait battre les montagnes. The traces of intertextuality in Detambel's works derive from the influence of Colette, who commenced her writing career at the tum of the 20th century a writer whose profound effect on Detambel caused her to devote her essay Colette - comme une Flore; comme un Zoo to a study of the botanical and zoological metaphors for the human body present in her precursor's work. The theoretical aspect of this study is based on Antoine Compagnon' s La Seconde Main which examines the role of the quotation in its broadest sense, as well as Gérard Genette's Palimpsestes, a study of the traces of one author's work in another's. Genette qualifies this terminology by naming the original text a hypotexte, while the transformation thus derived is called the hypertexte. The intertextuality present in Detambel's works is examined on both a literary and a thematic level. The former comprises a study of the quotation within its context as a metaphor derived from Colette's work and transformed by Detambel into a poetic form which transcends that of its origin. The power of the quotation to initiate dialogue - and dialectic - is also studied, together with the role of the reader in both the realisation and the completion of the text. Implicit in this examination is the role of the writer of this study, as reader of both Colette and Detambel. On a thematic level, we examine the concept of a triumphant and inviolable femininity which has its roots in a pagan vision of woman, one which predates any form of monotheistic religion. Colette's influence is also present as a literary style which is visceral and frank, while simultaneously qualifying for the epithet of 'prose poetry'. A female gaze which reverses the stereotypical prerogative of the male gaze is further evidence of Colette's influence. In her role as author, attention is drawn to the fact that Detambel, like Colette, has no declared intention with regard to the reader; her works are entirely non-didactic. It is this lack of intention, a hallmark of both authors' works which renders them universal. For both women, writing was a catalyst in the discovery of both their feminine nature and their writing potential, in a world which today differs little from that in which Balzac described aspirant women writers as "half-women; ones who might just as well be described as men." Two interviews conducted with Régine Detambel, revealed a writer and woman in no doubt as to her identity in both spheres. Like Colette, Detambel succeeds in triumphing over adversity precisely because of, (and not despite), a femininity which is inviolable - and inviolate. So closely does this image conform to that of Colette, that there is no question that Detambel's work is 'Colette's fault' - the irony of which lies in a reversal of the traditionally pejorative connotation of that phrase.
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    The genesis of poetic prose in the works of Louis-Ferdinand Celine through the transgressive and maieutic agency of the figure of the Double
    (2008) Collett, Anne Elizabeth; Cornille, Jean-Louis
    This study examines Louis-Ferdinand Celine's quest for the actualization of his creative aesthetic through the transgressive and maieutic agency of the figure of the Double manifest in his works. In that capacity, we examine the Double's role as a vehicle for the production of the author's poetic prose. To this end, we interrogate the role of the Double as a coping mechanism for the author's fractured psyche caused by the trauma of his war experiences and a concomitant horror Celine perceived as extant in man's inhumanity to man, concealed by a veneer of 'civilised' behaviour. Because the figure of the Double is manifest in Celine's works in two distinct capacities, both as a coping mechanism and in providing the impetus for the production of his poetic prose, we have divided this study into two sections comprising Transgressors and Midwives. The first analyses those elements in Celine's aesthetic which were transgressive, iconoclastic, providing the initial impulse for creative production. These influences include war and the author's concept of death; father figures who exerted an influence on both the medical and literary careers of the author; Celine's transgressive use of idiolect, and the presence in the author's work of Dionysian and Apollinian elements as a metaphor for creative conflict. The second section examines those aspects of the Double which are maieutic in the Socratic sense in that they deliver the outcome of dialectic argument present in the fundamental conflictual (and creative) opposition or rivalry between Doubles as a product of that dissent, in the form of poetic prose. Those elements which act as 'Midwives' in this context include the act of writing per seas a catalyst for the resolution of Celine's fragmented psyche; ambiguity and the grotesque in subterranean spaces as a site ofregeneration and finally, Shakespeare's works as an intertextual touchstone and seat of linguistic and poetic inspiration. If the word 'maieutic' relates to the Socratic method or dialectic of eliciting knowledge by a series of questions and answers, we posit that Celine's figurative use of a maieutic method for eliciting truth or authenticity in his work is evidenced in the high level of poetic prose as its outcome. It is also extant in the effect that the author's prose has on the reader in eliciting an active response in the form of a participatory reading of Celine's works by appealing directly to the reader's emotions as well as, in a best-case scenario, prompting the reader to re-write Celine's works. An observation of the trajectory of the figure of the Double throughout Celine's oeuvre, from his first manifestation in the person of the author's avowed double Bardamu 1 in tandem with the protagonist's Double Robinson in Voyage au bout de la nuit, t~ough the gradual decline of his avatars in successive novels, culminating in his final elimination in Celine's last work Rigodon, revealed a significant pattern in terms of a literary solution to a personal issue. We discovered a parallel between the novels in which the highest degree of poetic prose was attained and the presence of those figures of the Double who were most transgressive: Mille-Pattes in Guignol 's Band and Jules in F eerie pour une autre fois. We also noted that a relative diminution in the level of poetic prose in the novels of the trilogy coincided with a decline and eventual demise of the figure of the Double. This led us to conclude that the figure of the Double was simply a literary device for the actualization of the author's project: the resolution of Celine's internal conflict and his reliance on the Double as a seat of both refuge and inspiration, and a concomitant manifestation of an authentic voice represented in his poetic prose. However, we emphasise that the disappearance of the figure of the Double in Celine's works does not imply an abolition of that figure, but rather an assimilation by the protagonist of all those elements which constituted his 'Otherness'. This factor is inherent in the attainment of a state of immanence, both by Celine and the protagonists in his novels.