La notion de littérature dans les cahiers de Paul Valéry

The concept of literature in paul valery' cahiers

• Auteur / Autrice : Young-Ran Yu
• Direction : Huguette Laurenti
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Langue et littérature française
• Date : Soutenance en 1986
• Etablissement(s) : Montpellier 3

Résumé

Cette these a pour but de conceptualiser les divers arguments dans les cahiers de paul valery. Ce travail a commence a analyser a partir de la haine pour la litterature normale, pour parvenir a faire une enquete sur ses raisons profondes et psychologiques. Valery est attire par le jeu intellectuel des oeuvres litteraires plutot que par la fonction du divertissement. Il peut maitriser son faible moi par le truchement de l'exercice intellectuel. Il veut meme atteindre au sommet de l'etre a travers la gymnastique de l'esprit qu'est la litterature pour lui-meme. Sa litterature est donc tout a fait different de la litterature normale. La litterature est pour lui le lieu de l'exercice intellectuel. Pour composer, c'est-a-dire pour faire l'exercice, il se propose de mathematiser la litterature pour produire des oeuvres de valeur intrinseque. L'esprit mathematique est fortement lie a son idee sur la litterature intrinseque. Pour effectuer cette entreprise novatrice. Valery recourt au langage ainsi qu'au calcul pour reconstruire le monde artificiel. Il rejette toute la reference au reel. Il n'accepte pas aucune doctrine mythique et esoterique. Il ne recourt qu'au langage du present tout en liberant la litterature de toutes les references. Autrement dit, valery laisse la litterature telle quelle. Pour mettre au point ces grands traits de la notion valeryenne de la litterature et aussi pour illustrer sa notion, cette these a observe la grande difference d'avec son maitre mallarme et son ami andre gide. Ces deux rapprochements permettent a cette these de situer la notion valeryenne de la litterature dans son contexte historique.

The intent of this paper is to conceptualize valery's literary opinions which appear in various ways in his cahiers. Cheap sentiments and recreational fuctions of ordinary literature made valery uneasy and, thus caused losthsomeness, since he was more intellectual than emotional in his personal tendencies. Therefore he paid attention to the intellectual which governs and controls the emotional, and tried to obtain the essence of being through his own intellect. Furthermore, he made efforts to achieve self-recognition which was a sort of supreme awareness to himself. So his literature, as a process of tempering intellect, differs from the ordinary. He took his subjects from the ordinary life, but he re-composed them into a noble and purified world, far different from everyday reality, through language only. Thus, his theory of creation excldes all would-be references and depends solely upon now as time and language as instrument. Due to the poet's closely woven scheme and artistic organization, ordinary language is transformed into a literary one; and the work created in such a language achieves only intrinsic value and thus provokes multitudinous interpretations, and obtains aesthetic unification and organization as are found in algebra and geometry. Valery named this hypothesis ''pure poetry'' as an ideal type of his theory of creation. He insisted that the poet should exert himself to realize the ideal harmony of intrinsic value by continually purifying the everyday language through his intellectual activity. Valery's clear and analytic intellect enabled him to observe himself as narcissus does, and he did it with his theoretical instruments, now and language. So it is possible to point out the fact that his inner speculation is always elevated to have an ultimate intrinsic value through the purified and refined language of litterature.