Proust and the art of language. Synonymy as linguistic idolatry. In: SERGIO CIGADA E MARISA VERNA A CURA DI. in La Sinonimia tra langue e parole nei codici italiano e francese,. p. 231-254, MILANO: Vita e Pensiero The aim of this article is to analyze the impossibility of conceiving of the idea itself of synonymy within the proustian understanding of language and his esthetics. Since his first theoretical reflections on literary language, Proust considered meaning as the result of a complex dynamics, never established once and for all. In his notes to his translations of John Ruskin, the future author of the Recherche reproaches the English esthetician of looking for linguistic meaning where it cannot be found: in the dictionaries or in the history of words. In this attitude Proust sees the same sin of idolatry that Ruskin shares with Montesquiou and that leads to a confusion between art and life, meaning and words. This conception of language can be found in the Recherche at different levels. Two of these will be analyzed in this article: the language of the characters and the formation of metaphor. Within the language of the characters it is possible to observe various clue synonyms , or even implicit synonyms , marking meaning shifts, where the similarity of meaning at the level of langue is even more revealing of psychological truths that language ends up always exposing. Within this indirect language studied by Genette, it is clear that there is not just one synonym and that it could not be simply replaced by its equivalent in the dictionary without a serious loss of meaning. The case of metaphor is even clearer to establish the impossibility of synonymy within the proustian understanding of literary language. Two examples will be presented of sememe metaphors , in which the narrator of the Recherche develops all the semantic directions of the linguistic sign by the metaphorisation of the whole sememe. The word itself is at the origin of a process of metamorphosis of reality of which the metaphor is the textual result. It is from the word, as a total sign and as it lies within the artist s conscience, that all comparisons derive. Therefore the metaphor does not realize a process of semantic equivalence, it is not a synonym of a word or an expression because it is born from an evocation, from the resounding of a memory that words awake within the soul of the person who produces it. Indeed the proustian style reflects on reality a network of questions where all the potentialities of a meaning are activated. Under these conditions, for a writer to believe in the existence of synonymy is like treason against his duty as an artist, which is not to say trois fois à peu près la même chose , but to find a truth able to give way to that journey through the self that every reader is supposed to begin once the book is fnished.
Verna, M., Proust et l art de la langue. La synonymie comme idolâtrie linguistique, in Verna, M., Cigada, S. (ed.), La Sinonimia tra langue e parole nei codici italiano e francese, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2008: 231- 254 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/1538]
Autori: | |
Titolo: | Proust et l art de la langue. La synonymie comme idolâtrie linguistique |
Data di pubblicazione: | 2008 |
Abstract: | Dès ses premières réflexions théoriques sur la langue littéraire, Proust considère en effet le sens comme le résultat d’une dynamique complexe et jamais établie une fois pour toutes. Dans les notes à ses traductions de John Ruskin, le futur auteur de la Recherche reproche à l’esthéticien anglais de chercher le sens là où il n’est pas : dans les dictionnaires, ou dans l’histoire des mots. Dans cette attitude il y a pour Proust ce péché d’idolâtrie que Ruskin partage avec Montesquiou, et qui pousse à confondre l’art et la vie, le sens et les mots. Cette conception du langage se retrouve dans la Recherche à plusieurs niveaux ; nous allons en analyser deux : la langue des personnages et la formation de la métaphore. Dans la langue des personnages sont relevables de nombreux ‘synonymes indices’, ou même des synonymes implicites, qui marquent un glissement du sens, où l’analogie de signifié au niveau langue n’en est que plus révélatrice de vérités psychologiques que le langage finit toujours par démasquer. Dans ce « langage indirect » étudié par Genette le synonyme n’en est évidemment pas un, et ne pourrait, sans grave perte de sens, être remplacé par son équivalent du dictionnaire. Le cas de la métaphore est plus décisif pour une définition de l’impossibilité de la synonymie dans la conception proustienne de la langue littéraire. Nous avons choisi de présenter deux exemples de ‘métaphores sémème’, dans lesquelles le narrateur de la Recherche développe toutes les directions sémantiques du signe langue, en métaphorisant ainsi le sémème entier. Le mot est lui-même source du procès de métamorphose du réel dont la métaphore est le résultat textuel, et c’est à partir du mot, en tant que signe total, tel qu’il est déposé dans la conscience de l’artiste, que se départent les comparaisons. La métaphore ne marque partant pas un procédé d’équivalence sémantique, elle n’est pas synonyme d’un mot ou d’une expression, car elle naît d’une évocation, d’une résonance mémorielle que les mots déclenchent dans l’esprit de celui qui l’énonce. L’écriture proustienne lance en effet sur le réel « des réseaux d'interrogation », où toutes les virtualités du sens sont actives. Dans ces conditions, croire dans l’existence des synonymes est pour un écrivain une trahison de son devoir d’artiste, qui est de ne pas dire « trois fois à peu près la même chose », mais de trouver une vérité capable de donner lieu au voyage dans soi-même que chaque lecteur est censé commencer, une fois le livre fini. |
Abstract: | Proust and the art of language. Synonymy as linguistic idolatry. In: SERGIO CIGADA E MARISA VERNA A CURA DI. in La Sinonimia tra langue e parole nei codici italiano e francese,. p. 231-254, MILANO: Vita e Pensiero The aim of this article is to analyze the impossibility of conceiving of the idea itself of synonymy within the proustian understanding of language and his esthetics. Since his first theoretical reflections on literary language, Proust considered meaning as the result of a complex dynamics, never established once and for all. In his notes to his translations of John Ruskin, the future author of the Recherche reproaches the English esthetician of looking for linguistic meaning where it cannot be found: in the dictionaries or in the history of words. In this attitude Proust sees the same sin of idolatry that Ruskin shares with Montesquiou and that leads to a confusion between art and life, meaning and words. This conception of language can be found in the Recherche at different levels. Two of these will be analyzed in this article: the language of the characters and the formation of metaphor. Within the language of the characters it is possible to observe various clue synonyms , or even implicit synonyms , marking meaning shifts, where the similarity of meaning at the level of langue is even more revealing of psychological truths that language ends up always exposing. Within this indirect language studied by Genette, it is clear that there is not just one synonym and that it could not be simply replaced by its equivalent in the dictionary without a serious loss of meaning. The case of metaphor is even clearer to establish the impossibility of synonymy within the proustian understanding of literary language. Two examples will be presented of sememe metaphors , in which the narrator of the Recherche develops all the semantic directions of the linguistic sign by the metaphorisation of the whole sememe. The word itself is at the origin of a process of metamorphosis of reality of which the metaphor is the textual result. It is from the word, as a total sign and as it lies within the artist s conscience, that all comparisons derive. Therefore the metaphor does not realize a process of semantic equivalence, it is not a synonym of a word or an expression because it is born from an evocation, from the resounding of a memory that words awake within the soul of the person who produces it. Indeed the proustian style reflects on reality a network of questions where all the potentialities of a meaning are activated. Under these conditions, for a writer to believe in the existence of synonymy is like treason against his duty as an artist, which is not to say trois fois à peu près la même chose , but to find a truth able to give way to that journey through the self that every reader is supposed to begin once the book is fnished. |
Lingua: | Francese |
Titolo del libro: | La Sinonimia tra langue e parole nei codici italiano e francese |
Editore: | Vita e Pensiero |
Citazione: | Verna, M., Proust et l art de la langue. La synonymie comme idolâtrie linguistique, in Verna, M., Cigada, S. (ed.), La Sinonimia tra langue e parole nei codici italiano e francese, Vita e Pensiero, Milano 2008: 231- 254 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/1538] |
Appare nelle tipologie: | In libro con curatela: Capitolo o saggio; Prefazione/Postfazione; Breve introduzione; Schede di catalogo, repertorio o corpus |