L'oeuvre romanesque d'Anthony Powell

The novels of anthony powell

• Auteur / Autrice : Isabelle Joyau
• Direction : Luce Bonnerot
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Études anglaises
• Date : Soutenance en 1992
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 4

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Critique et interprétation

Powell, Anthony (1905-2000)

Résumé

Avec ses sept romans individuels et les douze volumes de la fresque a dance to the music of time (1951-1975), anthony powell a cree une oeuvre romanesque touffue, ambigue et difficile. Cette etude a ete organisee autour des trois notions d'espace referentiel, d'espace hermeneutique et d'espace imaginaire. Espace referentiel: powell a legue, surtout dans a dance, une remarquable chronique d'une partie de la societe britannique d'une epoque, celle qui va de la premiere guerre mondiale aux annees soixante-dix. Le milieu decrit est circonscrit a la upper-class et aux cercles artistiques et litteraires. On assiste au recul de l'ordre patricien traditionnel et a la montee de couches nouvelles sur les fronts mondain, economique et politique. Espace hermeneutique, car interrogations et desir de transparence figurent au coeur de la thematique powellienne. Le caractere d'oeuvre ouverte de la fresque s'accorde au caractere aporetique de la quete de verite. Le monde powellien est un monde du signe rebelle, peuple d'etres de fuite et marque par une esthetique de l'incertitude. Une impression de malaise domine l'espace imaginaire. Vacuite existentielle et langagiere, thematique carcerale omnipresente, maux du corps et de l'esprit, conferent a l'oeuvre une tonalite thymique essentiellement dysphorique. La richesse de l'invention comique et notamment l'humour souriant de powell attenuent cependant l'impression debilitante. Ils rendent finalement supportable un regard lucide porte sur l'absurdite du monde.

In his seven individual novels and the twelve volumes of his dance to the music of time series (1951-1975), anthony powell has created subtle and complex works of fiction. This study is structured around three organizing principles: referential, hermeneutic and imaginary. Referential since powell, especially in a dance, has written a remarkable chronicle of one section of british society between the first world war and the 1970's. Powell concentrates on a portrayal of the upper class as well as on artistic and literary bohemia. He describes the decline of the traditional patrician order and the rise of a new class of men, dominant on the social, the economic and the political level. Hermeneutic because an ever questioning attitude and a desire for absolute truths are at the heart of powell's writing. The open-endedness of the series is in keeping with the aporia which is an integral part of the quest for truth. For powell's narrators, fellow humans remain fundamentally inscrutable, inaccessible and meaning for ever elusive. The author's imaginary universe is dominated by an aesthetics of uncertainty and permeated by an overwhelming feeling of malaise. Existential vacuity, linguistic inanity, pervasive images of imprisonment, physical and emotional disorders lend his novels an essentially dysphoric tone. The richness of powell's comic invention and in particular his gentle humour temper the overall atmosphere of gloom. These elements enable the reader to come to terms with powell's lucid perception of the absurdity of the world.