Author’s name:
Aleksandr N. Taganov
Abstract:
The article examines the characteristic features of fictional images in the works of Jules Re-nard (1864–1910), a French writer who is fairly well known but at the same time not overly spoiled by attention from literary critics and the reading public either in France or in Russia. French and Russian literary studies have repeatedly tried to determine Renard’s place in the history of French national literature but haven’t found it easy to do because of certain unique
features of his work. His entire creative path is a search for an artistic language that can truly reflect reality, and for Renard this desire to find adequate methods of reflecting reality, the search for truth in art often takes on painful and tragic forms. In its discussion of Renard’s aesthetic views, this article emphasizes that, while rejecting theoretical positions of existing literary trends, Renard remained suspicious of works based on imagination, believing that it led the writer away from reality. The development of Renard’s creativity goes from imitation of works of art (i.e. from mimesis of mimesis) to imitation of life and nature. Renard wants to “cleanse” images of his characters, of nature and animals from all artificiality. Literature, in his opinion, should be freed from literature. This “hunt” for the natural image becomes the basis of Renard’s artistic system. It is important to note that, in his obsession with the search for an accurate representation of reality, Renard is the first to discover the “tender spots” or “painful points” in the development of verbal creativity which largely determine the specifics of the literary process in the 20th century.
| Section | CROSS-CULTURAL ASPECTS OF LITERARY DISCOURSE |
| DOI: | 10.47388/2072-3490/lunn2021-55-3-111-119 |
| Downloads | 655 |
| Key words | French literature; literary direction; “red style”; fictional image; artistic conven-tion; “era of suspicion”. |