The Aesthetics of Implausibility: La Princesse de Cleves
1984; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 99; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2905399
ISSN1080-6598
Autores Tópico(s)Rousseau and Enlightenment Thought
ResumoAlthough ostensibly presented by Mme. de Lafayette as a mirror of courtly life, une parfaite imitation du monde de la cour et de la maniere dont on y vit, La Princesse de Cleves (1678) was perceived to be a challenge to the moral and aesthetic norms of the contemporary public.1 The question of the verisimilitude (vraisemblance) of the heroine's conduct elicited extensive critical debates, public (in the newspaper Le Mercure galant) and private (Valincour, Bussy-Rabutin and l'Abbe de Charnes).2 These debates provide the modern reader with a comprehensive documentation of the novel's reception, reflecting a change in the interpretation of the relation of language to human conduct. Both public and private critics considered the heroine's conduct implausible (invraisemblable) because of its extravagant and inimitable nature. Moreover, the public also drew parallels between its own court and the novel in order to discuss whether people could behave like the heroine. This mimetic effect, which is endorsed by Mme. de Lafayette's own contention that her novel is a perfect mirror of courtly life, is, however, undercut by the comments of such critics as Valincour. He observes that the issue is not whether such behavior might actually take place in reality, but rather that such behavior is implausible within the conventions of the novella. For novelistic verisimilitude is defined by what ought to be (devait Ntre), that is to say, by the norm rather than by the real.3 Critics such as Valincour and Bussy-Rabutin object not only to the way the characters act, but also to the structure of the novel, to its use of internal narratives. They consider the novel a generic hybrid, neither a novella, nor entirely a romance (roman).4 Despite its overt invitation to imitation and verisimilitude, the novel
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