French title: La « Fiction Biographique »: Une Conceptualisation Critique Contemporaine à l’ OEuvre (English title: ‟ Biographical Fiction” : A Contemporary Critical Conceptualization at Work)

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SADEGHIAN SAEED; ESFANDI ESFANDIAR

Title

French title: La « Fiction Biographique »: Une Conceptualisation Critique Contemporaine à l’ OEuvre (English title: ‟ Biographical Fiction” : A Contemporary Critical Conceptualization at Work)

Author(s)

SADEGHIAN SAEED | ESFANDI ESFANDIAR | Issue Writer Certificate

Keywords

French key word:Classification conceptuelle

Conceptualisation générique

Critique biographique

Fiction biographique

Pensée critique (English key word:biographical fiction

biographical critic

critical thinking

conceptual classification

generic conceptualization)

Abstract

French abstract: Le ‘ contemporain’ comme notion esthé tique a partie lié e à un travail critique qui se propose d’ en dé finir les particularité s et les traits distinctifs. Ainsi, on peut supposer que la dé finition de la « litté rature contemporaine franç aise » remonte avant tout aux efforts critiques qui ont é té dé buté dans ce contexte depuis les anné es 1990. Cette dé finition passe souvent par les classifications conceptuelles dont la « Fiction biographique », qui est une é tiquette gé né rique destiné e à distinguer les é critures biographiques contemporaines en ré gime romanesque par rapport aux exemples plus classiques du genre. En ce sens, cette notion est le ré sultat d’ une conceptualisation critique parallè le à la cré ation litté raire, qui se veut sensible à la fois à la tradition litté raire et aux é volutions contemporaines. Ainsi, il paraî t difficile d’ ignorer l’ influence pré gnante de la pensé e critique qui accompagne la pratique biographique, la lé gitime et y prê te un nouveau sens dans un marché du livre de plus en plus foisonnant. La pré sente é tude a pour objectif de projeter une nouvelle lumiè re sur l’ importance du travail critique dans le devenir du genre biographique à travers trois rô les que l’ on lui attribue: ‘ description’ , ‘ orientation’ et ‘ classification conceptuelle’ . English abstract: Since the 1980s, the French cultural context testifies to a change taking shape in the horizon of the biographical genre. After an ‟ eclipse of biography” , the genre becomes the object of a vast historical, sociological and literary reflection. If we consider this craze for biography, as a general feature of contemporary French culture, we are faced with a temporal phenomenon which covers without nuance ‟ our time” : a passage from the ‟ society of individuals” to the ‟ biographical condition” , the reason for which can be traced back to sociohistorical elements such as the ‟ return of the Subject” specific to contemporary individualism or the ‟ return of the past” with all its particularities specific to the present regime of historicity. But, if ‟ contemporary” is understood to be an aesthetic label, the notion of ‟ biographical fiction” is intended to designate the distinctive features of certain biographical productions of today in relation to a ‟ generic paradigm of reference” . In this sense, it proves impossible to close our eyes to the role that the critical authority plays in the definition of genres, and so the formation of our conception of contemporary literature. For instance, the biographical writing is far enough from being absent from mainstream French culture throughout the first half of the twentieth century, a period often referred to as the period of ‟ the eclipse of biography” . Thus, it can be assumed that terms such as ecstasy or climax of biography reflect less biographical practice than a critical consensus on this subject. What Jean-Marie Schaeffer qualifies as a ‟ hierarchy of specific attention” , which largely depends on the reading grids induced by critical projects. Therefore, we can say that the image that exists today of the profusion of biographical creation in the French context, without being false, depends primarily on critical work. As a result, the importance of a more detailed study of how this work is carried out and the role it plays in the fate of the biographical genre in the French context are represented. Indeed, what matters to us here is to highlight the critical work that accompanies biographical creation, to which we attribute three roles in the fate of the biographical genre and the construction of the image we have of it today. ‟ description” , ‟ orientation” and ‟ conceptual classification” . To write a biography is to settle into a generic inter-discourse. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine the state of a genre when this generic heritage is not defined. The impact of this communicational system or this inter-discourse becomes more significant if we consider the very particular way in which literature evolves in the French context where the new is generally defined by breaking with tradition. The French biographical cannot be excluded from this tradition. Chronologically, the existence of the ‟ tradition of rupture” required a relatively deep knowledge, detailed description and sometimes even a theorization of biographical practice. This gave birth to a biographical reflection, which certainly had an influence on the changes in biographical creation. A reflection whose origins can be traced back to the works of Sainte-Beuve. In fact, Sainte-Beuve set out to turn his ‟ biographical concern” into a literary theory which requires a first effort of ‟ description” , distinction and categorization. This leads to one of the first meta-discourses on the genre. It is in the same vein that we can reconsider the criticisms of Proust_ when he begins to judge with a contemptuous eye the Saint-Beuvienne ambition to seek the author characteristic in the text. Thus, Sainte-Beuve by his initiative, and Proust by his critical gesture, made the author’ s biography a subject of continuous debate in French literary criticism. Likewise, the influence of literary critical discourse on the way in which biographical writing evolves in a fictional regime can be great, especially when it is a question of an approving gesture or a ‟ return” on the part of the great masters of anti-biographical doxa. Here, we limit ourselves to the role played by two of them, that is to say Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes, on the new ‟ orientations” that biographical writing undergoes from the 1980s. This role is due as much to their critical contribution as their passion for some form of biographical practice. If we can attribute a legitimizing contribution and a guiding role to the gesture of the ‟ return” of the great masters of the anti-biographical doxa, we must consider such an important place for contemporary critical work. In fact, the perspective that is displayed today in front of us as the richness and variety of biographical writing in the French context is the result of a critical ‟ university” work which aims to be contemporary at work. The importance of this contemporaneity becomes greater, if one considers its novelty in the French context. Prior to this period, it was the authoritative authority and journalistic criticism that dealt with classifications and conceptualizations. However, from the years 1980-90, a French university critic, concerned about showing the richness of contemporary literature, proposed to look at the work of living authors. This inclination of academic criticism for contemporary creation and this synthetic and cohesive effort on the part of the university allows the works to emerge from their isolated state and come together under a precise generic category. Indeed, such a concentration on conceptual classifications allows firstly to build a certain form of synthesis, then secondly to practice more specific analyzes on each of the texts, in the light of the norms induced by the first synthesis. Not only does a classification as ‟ biographical fiction” diversifies the possibility of a critical dialogue with the legacy of the past, but also, once established, it opens up new horizons and outlines new spaces of possibilities in front of the new generation of writers, who in turn decides to join or play with it. And this is the second advantage of contemporary academic critical work at work: the ‟ incitement to creation” . A third advantage can be added to conceptual classifications: the idea of production profusion against literary sluggishness, or even ‟ literature in peril” , to use the title of Todorov’ s book.

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APA: Copy

SADEGHIAN, SAEED, & ESFANDI, ESFANDIAR. (2021). French title: La « Fiction Biographique »: Une Conceptualisation Critique Contemporaine à l’ OEuvre (English title: ‟ Biographical Fiction” : A Contemporary Critical Conceptualization at Work). RECHERCHES EN LANGUE ET LITTERATURE FRANCAISES, 15(27 ), 135-149. SID. https://sid.ir/paper/953111/en

Vancouver: Copy

SADEGHIAN SAEED, ESFANDI ESFANDIAR. French title: La « Fiction Biographique »: Une Conceptualisation Critique Contemporaine à l’ OEuvre (English title: ‟ Biographical Fiction” : A Contemporary Critical Conceptualization at Work). RECHERCHES EN LANGUE ET LITTERATURE FRANCAISES[Internet]. 2021;15(27 ):135-149. Available from: https://sid.ir/paper/953111/en

IEEE: Copy

SAEED SADEGHIAN, and ESFANDIAR ESFANDI, “French title: La « Fiction Biographique »: Une Conceptualisation Critique Contemporaine à l’ OEuvre (English title: ‟ Biographical Fiction” : A Contemporary Critical Conceptualization at Work),” RECHERCHES EN LANGUE ET LITTERATURE FRANCAISES, vol. 15, no. 27 , pp. 135–149, 2021, [Online]. Available: https://sid.ir/paper/953111/en

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Scientific Information Database

ISSN: 2588-4824

Journal Paper

French title: La « Fiction Biographique »: Une Conceptualisation Critique Contemporaine à l’ OEuvre (English title: ‟ Biographical Fiction” : A Contemporary Critical Conceptualization at Work)