Faulkner, The Hamlet et la trilogie des Snopes : développement d'une problématique de la communauté

Faulkner, the hamlet and the snopes trilogy : developing and coping with the issue of community

• Auteur / Autrice : Jacques Pothier
• Direction : Michel Gresset
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Lettres
• Date : Soutenance en 1994
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 7

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Communauté

Dans la littérature

Faulkner, William (1897-1962). Hamlet

Faulkner, William (1897-1962). Snopes

Faulkner, William (1897-1962)

Critique et interprétation

Résumé

Cette these reexamine une tradition critique qui a vu dans l'histoire des snopes une defense du sens americain de la ''communaute''. La premiere partie examine la genese des snopes, et d'abord le contexte ideologique et les influences. L'avant-texte (notamment la nouvelle inedite '' as i lay dying'', reproduite en annexe) presente des scenes matricielles, ''archi-scenes'' d'une autre signification latente, et developpe la confrontation de deux personnages, flem snopes et ratliff. Au cours de la composition de the hamlet, faulkner resout la ''scene originaire sociale'' qui, dans les romans des annees trente, s'inscrivait dans un ''roman familial'' de la communaute. La deuxieme partie de la these montre comment, avec la trilogie snopes, la communaute supplante l'individu au centre de la problematique. Dans le village de the hamlet sont juxtaposees les representations du lien social, correspondant a plusieurs styles. Ironiquement, c'est flem snopes, non ratliff, qui est le facteur unificateur de la communaute en introduisant l'''economie snopes''. Dans the town et the mansion, faulkner met en scene la communaute de la ville, reductrice comme le sont les interpretations canoniques de son oeuvre comme mythe de l'amerique, en meme temps que sa fiction explore desesperement la possibilite d'une communaute '' apocryphe'', laissant place a la dignite de l'individu.

A reconsideration of the traditional view of the snopes trilogy as a defence of a southem sense of a reconsideration of the traditional view of thee snopes trilogy as a defence of as a defence of a southern sense of community. The first part deals with the early developments of the snopes project : it explores the ideological background and influences behind the idea of ''snopes''. The early drafts ( including the unpublished '' as i lay dying'' short, a transcription of which is provided in appendix ) introduce a few seminal scenes, pregnant with latent meaning, together with budding confrontation between flem snopes and ratliff. While laying out the hamlet, faulkner works through the '' social primal scene '' which had featured the issue of community in the context of the southern ''family romance. '' in the second part, the community is shown to have replaced the individual as a central concern in the trilogy. In the hamlet, the village is the space in wich several visions of the social bond, mirrored in several styles, are juxtaposed. Flem snopes, not ratliff provides the missing unity of the community by introducing the '' snopes economy. '' the story of the town and the mansion is set in the town-community which ignores the integrity of the individual, just like the community of readers is setting its own canonical reading of faulkner's word as myth. Ultimately, faulker seeks the possibility of an ''apocryphal'' community with would preserve the ''idiocy'' of the ''common'' man.