Balzac: Poetics, Numbers, Money
Abstract
At the center of the article is the hypothesis, which boils down to the fact that Balzac develops the concept of the novel as a genre that is capable of representing the diversity of the world in all its entirety. The article also examines Balzac’s works of art and his correspondence as well as journalistic texts and metatexts (prefaces and conclusions), in which it is possible to find his own reflection on the developed method of working with material (primarily quantitative and static indicators that claim to express the rational truth about life). Balzac’s chosen strategy involves the creation of text that emphasizes the expressive potential of numbers. This hypothesis is clarified in the course of analyzing a number of the writer’s different texts taking the form of a conclusion according to which Balzac’s realism develops in the direction of interest in details and immanence. In this regard, Balzac’s poetics can be described in its development in two directions. The first is associated with the need for an image, based on the study of man’s mysterious inner world. The second is connected with the need to perceive and convey in writing any experience, regardless of its social or cultural status. Such a significant shift in the paradigm of storytelling leads to the creation of texts in which numbers become an independent actor. At the same time, numbers regulate the mimetic accuracy of the story and are arranged in mathematical forms, which ultimately occupy the main space of prose, quantitatively measuring the breadth of the range of human life and talking about the movement of money and life’s vicissitudes.
References
1. Balzac H. Correspondance (ed., annot. R. Pierrot, H. Yon), Paris, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), 2006–2017, 3 vol.
2. Balzac H. La Comédie humaine, édition publiée sous la direction de Pierre-Georges Castex, Paris, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), 1976–1981, 12 vol.
3. Balzac H. Lettres à Madame Hanska (ed. R. Pierrot), Paris, Laffont (Bouquins), 1990, 2 vol.
4. Balzac H. Œuvres diverses, édition publiée sous la direction de Pierre-Georges Castex, Paris, Gallimard (Bibliothèque de la Pléiade), 1990–1996, 2 vol.
5. Barbéris P. Balzac, le baron Charles Dupin et les statistiques. L’Année balzacienne, 1966, pp. 67–83.
6. Bertini M. Honoré de Balzac: gli scritti teorici. I cadavérai nell’armadio. Sette lezioni di teoria del romanzo (dir. Gabriella Bosco e Roberta Sapino), Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, 2015, pp. 53–73.
7. Bertini M. Incroci obbligati. Romanzo, ritratto, “mélodrame”, Milano, Edizioni Unicopli, 2010.
8. Butor M. 6/7 ou les dés de Rabelais. Littérature, 1971, no. 2, pp. 3–18.
9. Camus А. Le Mythe de Sisyphe. Essais (dir. R. Quillot, L. Faucon), Paris, Gallimard, 1965.
10. Curtius E. R. Balzac, Paris, Éd. des Syrtes, 1999.
11. Diaz J.-L. Devenir Balzac. L’invention de l’écrivain par lui-même, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire, Christian Pirot, 2007.
12. Gusdorf G. Le Romantisme, I, Paris, Éditions Payot & Rivages, 1993.
13. L’Année balzacienne. Revue annuelle du Groupe d’Études Balzaciennes, Paris, Garnier, 1960–1982, PUF, 1983–.
14. Ménard M. Balzac et le comique dans «La Comédie humaine», Paris, PUF, 1983.
15. Moscovici S. La machine à faire des dieux. Sociologie et psychologie, Paris, Fayard, 1988.
16. Péraud A. “À quoi ça rime?… ou les ambivalences sémiotiques du compte de retour”, dans Illusions perdues. Actes du colloque des 1er et 2 décembre 2003 organisé par l’Université Paris-Sorbonne et la Société des études romantiques édités par José-Luis Diaz et André Guyaux, Paris, Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2004, pp. 215–231.
17. Péraud A. Le Crédit dans la poétique balzacienne, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2012.
18. Rosanvallon P. L’État en France de 1789 à nos jours, Paris, Seuil, 1990.
19. Seylaz J.-L. Une scène de Balzac: le transport de l’or dans Eugénie Grandet. L’Année balzacienne, 1980, no. 1, pp. 61–67.
20. Sgard J. L’échelle des revenus. Dix-Huitième Siècle, 1982, no. 14, pp. 425–433.
21. Szypula E. Balzac’s Love Letters: Correspondence and the Literary Imagination. Research
22. Monographs in French Studies 52, Cambridge, Routledge, 2016.
Review
For citations:
Spandri F. Balzac: Poetics, Numbers, Money. Versus. 2022;2(1):145-163. (In Russ.)
Views:
121
Email this article 