Cycnos | Volume 14.2 - La problématique de l'auteur | 2. Pratiques textuelles

Résumé :

In his work of fiction as well as in his literary criticism, Henry James has encouraged the reader to admit that the author is absent from the work of art which is submitted to its own laws. Yet, it seems difficult to reconcile the formalist theories he seems to anticipate with the authorial investment his fiction reveals and dramatizes and with the striking coincidences between autobiographical, fictional and critical material. The textual stategies at work in his novels and tales point at the haunting presence of a speaking subject who tries to maintain his grasp of the word and achieve “economic mastery”; in spite of “the terrible fluidity of self-revelation”;. The Jamesian “figure of the writer”; always manages to dissociate itself from the subjective experience of the authorial character or reflector and can be described as the governing conciousness exerting a persistent pressure on the outer edge of the text. Its active participation in the narrative communication situation poses the problem of the implied author which narratology has generally minimized.

Date de publication : 2008-06-18