HonorÃ© de Balzac, âobservateur poÃ¨teâ of the Parisian Gutter

CÃ©line Duverne

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Chapter 3 HonorÃ© de Balzac, âobservateur poÃ¨teâ of the Parisian Gutter

In: Marginal Paris

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CÃ©line Duverne

CÃ©line Duverne
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 53â71

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004707894_005

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Abstract

Despite his fascination with the aristocratic elite, the microcosm of finance, and the rising bourgeoisie, it is above all in the most sordid neighborhoods of Paris that HonorÃ© de Balzac finds an unprecedented laboratory of creativity. But as they are fundamentally unclassifiable, the margins defy the unitary coherence of the taxonomic pattern by which the novelist intends to make the changing city more intelligible. The observation of urban life therefore mixes the realistic purpose with a more lyrical approach based on flÃ¢nerie, initiated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in RÃªveries du promeneur solitaire (1782). By adopting a writing style that is itself hybridized, privileging poetic contemplation over the efficient march of the plot, Balzac can apprehend the mystery of these dregs of society. Prefiguring Charles Baudelaire, the representation of the margins in La ComÃ©die humaine is thus remarkable by a fusion of the âhideux dans le joli,â which breaks with the traditional canons of ideal beauty. This is how this treatment of the underworld differs from that of Victor Hugo or EugÃ¨ne Sue. Designating himself as an âobservateur poÃ¨te,â Balzac proposes a paradoxical poetization of the prosaism of the gutter, an aestheticization of depravity.

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Marginal Paris

Representing the Shadows of the City of Light

Series:Â Francopolyphonies, Volume: 35

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004707894

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 03 Sep 2024

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

Front Matter

Part 1 1800sâ1850s

Part 2 1850sâ1970s

Part 3 1990sâToday

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Chapter 3 HonorÃ© de Balzac, âobservateur poÃ¨teâ of the Parisian Gutter

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Marginal Paris

Representing the Shadows of the City of Light

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Chapter 3 HonorÃ© de Balzac, âobservateur poÃ¨teâ of the Parisian Gutter