The Order of Mimesis: Balzac, Stendhal, Nerval and Flaubert

300 Pages·2009·12.13 MB·English

by  Christopher Prendergast

Cambridge Studies in French
THE ORDER OF MIMESIS
Cambridge Studies in French
General editor: malcolm bowie
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THE ORDER OF MIMESIS
BALZAC, STENDHAL, NERVAL,
FLAUBERT
CHRISTOPHER PRENDERGAST
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© Cambridge University Press 1986
First published 1986
Printed in Great Britain at
the University Press, Cambridge
British Library cataloguing in publication data
Prendergast, Christopher
The Order of Mimesis: Balzac, Stendhal, Nerval, Flaubert. -
(Cambridge studies in French)
1. French fiction - 19th century - History and criticism
2. Mimesis in literature
I. Title
843'7 PQ653
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Prendergast, Christopher.
The Order of Mimesis.
(Cambridge Studies in French)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. French literature - 19th century - History and criticism.
2. Mimesis in literature. 3. Balzac, Honore de, 1799-1850 -
Criticism and interpretation. 4. Stendhal, 1783-1842 -
Criticism and interpretation. 5. Nerval, Gerard de, 1808-1855
- Criticism and interpretation. 6. Flaubert, Gustave, 1821-
1880 - Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series.
PQ382.P74 1986 840'.9-^1 85-18998
ISBN 0 521 23789 0
WD
CONTENTS
General editor’s preface page vi
Acknowledgements vii
1 The order of mimesis: poison, nausea, health 1
2 The economy of mimesis 24
The subject of mimesis 24
On verisimilitude 41
The language of mimesis 57
3 Balzac: narrative contracts 83
4 Stendhal: the ethics of verisimilitude 119
5 Nerval: the madness of mimesis 148
6 Flaubert: the stupidity of mimesis 180
7 Conclusion: mimesis, a matter for the police? 212
Notes 254
Translations 21A
Select bibliography 282
Index 285
v
GENERAL EDITOR’S
PREFACE
This series aims at providing a new forum for the discussion of major
critical or scholarly topics within the field of French studies. It
differs from most similar-seeming ventures in the degree of freedom
which contributing authors are allowed and in the range of subjects
covered. For the series is not concerned to promote any single area
of academic specialisation or any single theoretical approach.
Authors are invited to address themselves to problems, and to argue
their solutions in whatever terms seem best able to produce an
incisive and cogent account of the matter in hand. The search for
such terms will sometimes involve the crossing of boundaries
between familiar academic disciplines, or the calling of those
boundaries into dispute. Most of the studies will be written
especially for the series, although from time to time it will also
provide new editions of outstanding works which were previously
out of print, or originally published in languages other than English
or French.
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Two sections of this book have appeared, in modified form, in the
following journals: French Studies and Paragraph. I am grateful to
the respective editors for permission to reprint here. I should also
like to express my thanks to the various people who have helped
with the preparation of the final typescript: Joanne Griffith,
Carolyn Featherstone, Sandra Kendall and Frances Pink. I am par¬
ticularly grateful to Heather Pratt for her unstinting help with the
proofs; without her vigilant eye the final product would have been
considerably messier. Special thanks go to Malcolm Bowie who, as
both friend and general editor, was immensely generous in giving
support and guidance at a particularly difficult moment. I should
also like to record my gratitude to all those friends and colleagues
who, on a variety of matters and in a variety of ways, have helped
with information, advice and encouragement: John Barrell, Geoff
Bennington, Norman Bryson, Terence Cave, John Forrester, Ross
Harrison, Leslie Hill, Geoffrey Lloyd, Andy Martin. My greatest
debt (although he himself would repudiate that notion) is to Tony
Tanner for an education of a very special kind; the book is dedicated
to him.
vii
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