Mnemography Of The Fictional Subject In French Novel Of The Late Xxth Century (On The Material Of Quignard’s “The Salon In Württemberg”)

Abstract

French novel broadly develops the discourse around fictional subject’s Self-writing at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. Individual memory becomes a main marker of fictional subject’s Self-writing in French novel at the turn of the centuries. In the context of contemporary cultural situation, when the question of subject’s identity is particularly actualized, the research in the field of Self-writing in a novel turns into a significant source of examination of personal writing functional role.

For the present moment the subject of writing is one of the most relevant and topical within the coordinates of philosophy and literary critics, but still it offers a lot of horizons. The works of the leading representatives of French structuralism (R. Barthes, M. Foucault) and deconstruction (J. Derrida), which form a theoretical basics of the subject of writing in literary critics, are dedicated to investigation of different aspects of the problem making a particular emphasis on a subject of writing as a real person (a writer, an author, a man who writes) and on writing as a synonym of a literature (Barthes «Writing Degree Zero») or of a text (Barthes, Derrida, Ricœur). The examination of the writing whose author is a fictional character is called to broaden associative fields of the metaphors, to add new thoughts into the discourse about writing as a social and cultural phenomenon, to broaden the discourse about writing as a trace of constructing self-identity of the subject who writes.

Pascal Quignard’s novel «The Salon in Württemberg» («Le Salon du Wurtemberg») represents Self-writing of the fictional subject in the perspective of mnemography. The analysis of poetical particularities and functional role of writing in the process of constructing the identity of the subject in the novel «The Salon in Württemberg» previews the engagement of the structural method, the method of phenomenological metaphor and the method of cultural fields laying.

The comparison of different markers of writing in two Quignard’s novels reveals a conditional character of using a diary form in “Carus” (the diegesis doesn’t include any notifications about the work of writing) and intensifies the importance of the discourse about Self-writing in the novel «The Salon in Württemberg». The diary in the novel «Carus» is used by analogy with the notes in Dumas’ «Notes of Balsamino» and possesses the same connection with writing as memoires of the XVIIth century possess.

The narrator in «The Salon in Württemberg» doesn’t stop to emphasize the fact, that without the work of writing this work wouldn’t be possible. The shots of the past, which are not framed by a written word, simply dwindle. The remembrance is associated straight with the writing – to find a word, to confess to oneself, to make inner discovering, to wake one’s own voice up. Mnemography of the character in Quignard’s novel is interpreted as a removal of a mask – both in the past and in the present. Writing becomes a form of keeping an oath before friends and beloved, of maintaining a memory about them – the unrolling of memories through writing becomes a form of self-punishment which makes possible the forgiveness. Carl’s writing brings life to the pictures of the past and to the sphere of the imaginary, his visions. The work of the memory is realized through writing, which becomes a true way where a painful memory gets replaced by recollections of joyful moments.

Character’s writing in the novel «The Salon in Württemberg» is also pierced by sounds and colors which form interesting figures of writing. Quignard’s character would like to project the direction of his writing on the primary state of innocence, but realizing the impossibility of this project, he consciously deepens into the labyrinth of memory, condemning himself to eternal straying.

Mnemography creates character’s new vision of the world within the boundaries of writing dimension. The linear time is absent in this dimension, instead it gets possible to create endlessly a kaleidoscope of one’s life with the help of different frames. The work of writing which stimulates the memory and transforms the oneiric reminiscences into reality, also causes the metamorphoses of the topos of character’s house – from unwanted space towards Carl’s home.

As a conclusion, writing in the novel «The Salon in Württemberg» realizes a significant number of tasks, orientated towards character’s self-cognition and offers a rich material to examine the figure of homo scribens.