Chateaubriand and Sartre: The Confessional Tradition of Romanticism in an Existentialist Novel
Abstract
Natalya S. Shurinova (Rostov-on-Don, Russian, Federation)
A comparative analysis of the confessional texts of romanticism and existentialism is undertaken in the article. We turn to the texts of F. R. de Chateaubriand («Rene») and J.-P. Sartre («Nausea») in order to identify common features and to distinguish between the two types of confessional traditions.
Turning to the peculiarities of world perception and self-reflection of the individualist characters of the two works allows to distinguish between the Chateaubriand’s melancholy way of reacting to reality and the Sartre’s phenomenological method of exploring the world. The socially critical aspect is important for both texts in its own way: Chateaubriand shows the impossibility of combining Renee’s complicated spiritual life with social standards; Sartre emphasizes the fictitious ordering of the social world, condemning a person to an inauthentic existence. A special role in both texts is played by female images (Amelie at Chateaubrian and Annie at Sartre), emphasizing the impossibility of transparent communication. The similarity in the type of the character, plot, and character system prescribes the key problems characteristic of both traditions in the texts, which at the same time have different interpretations in the works of romanticism and existentialism.
Key words: Sartre, Chateaubriand, confessional novel, melancholic character, phenomenology, romanticism, existentialism.
DOI 10.23683/1995-0640-2019-4-120-126
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