Fryderyk Chopin w literaturze francuskiej: od figury romantycznej do ikony popkultury

The reception of Chopin and his music in French literature follows the rhythm of the changes in the European intellectual and aesthetic climates. George Sand recorded in her memoirs the image of a romantic genius par excellence, a dark, torn and complicated soul. The decadent and symbolist poetry, best exemplified by Maurice Rollinat, presents a portrait ofa blood-spitting neurasthenic, a soulmate of the poet. Marcel Proust paints the image of an elegant dandy and exquisite artist, while the first part of the twentieth century is dominated by the neoromantic vision of Chopin as a great Polish patriot; this theme is perfectly illustrated by the poems of Anna de Noailles and Edmond Rostand. André Gide presents a radicallynew view of Chopin’s music, seeing the Polish composer as a neoclassicist pianist. Contemporary literature and art go on to dress Chopin in jeans, eagerly turning him into a mass culture hero.

Lessons in French

None of the writers in my study can call French, without hesitation and qualification, a mother tongue. Some of them didn’t start studying the language until they arrived in Paris in their twenties and grappled with learning a new form of expression at a relatively late age. When they recall their initial exposure to this foreign tongue, they describe a fascinating apprenticeship involving dictionaries and renowned works of French literature, and they often shed light on the distinction between oral and written competence in their experience. It is crucial to note that even those authors who have long been fluent in French underscore their non-native relationship to it. Chapter 3 addresses the approaches of these worldwide women writers to French and examines their inventive literary publications in this tongue. It is sensitive to the history of this language and its inextricable connection to a colonial past that many of these writers experienced or became aware of in their homeland. It also focuses on the reality that, for almost all of these authors, this is not the only tongue with which they are familiar. For multilingual individuals, selecting French as their language of literary creation is often the result of a conscious choice motivated by a particular affinity. What comes through in their reflections is most often a passion for this language and a confirmation of the freedom it affords them, as well as an affirmation of its inimitable music that makes it especially well-suited for creative compositions.

The “Francophone” Fermata

Chapter 6 focuses on the widespread reluctance among worldwide women writers to accept the word “Francophone” to describe their lives and work. For many, this disinclination is due to their understanding that this term is frequently employed in order to set their work apart as separate from and implicitly inferior to writing by French authors from France. Some admit that the classification is useful in certain settings, but most are quick to deny its pertinence to the French literary scene. An examination of bookstore displays and literary prizes reveals that narrow definitions of what constitutes “French literature” and a tendency to hastily classify authors as “Francophone” can lead to forms of exclusivity with deleterious effects. A consequential number of women signed a manifesto arguing for abolishing the ambiguous application of the descriptor “Francophone” in favor of the adoption of the much broader, more encompassing phrase “world-literature in French.” Two months after the publication of this document in the French newspaper Le Monde on March 16, 2007, an accompanying collective book volume came out, featuring chapters by a relatively high percentage of authors in my study. Their signatures and essays indicate a desire among worldwide women writers of French to be respected simply as authors, free from the oft-confining specifications that restrict the way they are received and read. Their involvement in this movement also exhibits a willingness to advocate avidly for different angles of interpreting written works that transcend the limits of a label.

French Literature in Mono- and Multilingual Social Contexts

This article analyses the production and consumption of francophone manuscripts in thirteenth-century Flanders from a multilingual perspective. The polyglot linguistic reality of the County of Flanders, home to both Dutch- and French-speaking communities, is evident in documentary sources and manuscripts from around 1200. Using a database compiled for The Multilingual Dynamics of the Literary Culture of Medieval Flanders (ca 1200–ca 1500) project, the quantitative evidence for the apparent popularity of French literature will be scrutinized in the extant manuscripts produced and used in Flemish urban, monastic, and court environments during the thirteenth century. Furthermore, manuscript case studies related to the Flemish court illustrate how thirteenth-century francophone literary culture is shaped by social milieus and user contexts, including examples of the interregional francophone networks of noblewomen, cultural exchange between the court and urban elites, and a renewed interest in crusader history.

A Transcription of Dumont D'Urville's Manuscript les Zélandais Histoire Australienne and the Accompanying Notes, Followed by a Study of Some Literary and Historical Aspects of the Text

<p>A brief encounter with the Maori people during April 1824, inspired Dumont d'Urville to write a novel set in New Zealand. This work is the first novel set in New Zealand and the first fictional treatment of the Maori people, written by someone who had had first hand experience of their country. Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne is a unique combination of fact and fiction and as such has a considerable contribution to make to the history and literature of the Pacific region and of New Zealand in particular. The work was never published and the reasons for this are discussed in the final chapter of the thesis. After an interval of more than one hundred and sixty years spent in obscurity, Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne emerges from this study as a valuable historical and literary document. We have described it as an ethnographic novel with ethno-historical notes. The work is comprised of two sections of equal size and importance. There is the novel and the accompanying notes which cover a wide range of subjects, reflecting Dumont d'Urville's wide ranging interests, including Pacific history, geography, languages and cultures. The Notes are a primary source of information, containing Dumont d'Urville's observations which reappeared in later publications. In addition, the vivid experiences of Burns the stowaway and ex-convict, are invaluable as early eye-witness accounts. This is the first complete transcription of the manuscripts. It was a major undertaking because of the length, age and condition of the manuscripts and the almost illegible handwriting. The exercise is discussed in Chapter I In the literary study, several writers admired by Dumont d'Urville, or by whom he was influenced, are discussed. In the first paragraph of the Story, Dumont d'Urville mentions in particular Fénelon, Florian and Rousseau. We have examined some aspects of their work which are relevant to Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne. There is, for example, a discussion on the opposing view points held by Rousseau and some of the French explorers with regard to the legend of the Noble Savage. In addition, we have chosen two works, Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de Saint Pierre and Atala by Chateaubriand, in order to consider Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne from the point of view of exoticism and poetic prose in French literature. This section concludes with an appreciation of the literary style of the novel, which contrasts with the style of Dumont d'Urville's later popular work, Voyage pittoresque autour du monde. The navigator had an abiding interest in the peoples of the South Pacific. Through les Zélandais Histoire Australienne, Dumont d'Urville communicates the enthusiasm with which he made his contribution to the study of mankind. Others before him had recorded ethnographic information but Dumont d'Urville's concern for the cultural predicament of the Maori people sets this explorer apart. The author of this work is a pioneer in modern anthropology.</p>

A Transcription of Dumont D'Urville's Manuscript les Zélandais Histoire Australienne and the Accompanying Notes, Followed by a Study of Some Literary and Historical Aspects of the Text

<p>A brief encounter with the Maori people during April 1824, inspired Dumont d'Urville to write a novel set in New Zealand. This work is the first novel set in New Zealand and the first fictional treatment of the Maori people, written by someone who had had first hand experience of their country. Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne is a unique combination of fact and fiction and as such has a considerable contribution to make to the history and literature of the Pacific region and of New Zealand in particular. The work was never published and the reasons for this are discussed in the final chapter of the thesis. After an interval of more than one hundred and sixty years spent in obscurity, Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne emerges from this study as a valuable historical and literary document. We have described it as an ethnographic novel with ethno-historical notes. The work is comprised of two sections of equal size and importance. There is the novel and the accompanying notes which cover a wide range of subjects, reflecting Dumont d'Urville's wide ranging interests, including Pacific history, geography, languages and cultures. The Notes are a primary source of information, containing Dumont d'Urville's observations which reappeared in later publications. In addition, the vivid experiences of Burns the stowaway and ex-convict, are invaluable as early eye-witness accounts. This is the first complete transcription of the manuscripts. It was a major undertaking because of the length, age and condition of the manuscripts and the almost illegible handwriting. The exercise is discussed in Chapter I In the literary study, several writers admired by Dumont d'Urville, or by whom he was influenced, are discussed. In the first paragraph of the Story, Dumont d'Urville mentions in particular Fénelon, Florian and Rousseau. We have examined some aspects of their work which are relevant to Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne. There is, for example, a discussion on the opposing view points held by Rousseau and some of the French explorers with regard to the legend of the Noble Savage. In addition, we have chosen two works, Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de Saint Pierre and Atala by Chateaubriand, in order to consider Les Zélandais Histoire Australienne from the point of view of exoticism and poetic prose in French literature. This section concludes with an appreciation of the literary style of the novel, which contrasts with the style of Dumont d'Urville's later popular work, Voyage pittoresque autour du monde. The navigator had an abiding interest in the peoples of the South Pacific. Through les Zélandais Histoire Australienne, Dumont d'Urville communicates the enthusiasm with which he made his contribution to the study of mankind. Others before him had recorded ethnographic information but Dumont d'Urville's concern for the cultural predicament of the Maori people sets this explorer apart. The author of this work is a pioneer in modern anthropology.</p>