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Poetics of Murmur in Chateaubriand's René
Author(s) -
Valeur Peter Svare
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/oli.12076
Subject(s) - poetics , narrative , poetry , clarity , literature , mode (computer interface) , linguistics , psychology , philosophy , art , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , operating system
This article looks at the conspicuous use of the word murmure in Chateaubriand's influential narrative René (1802), and it argues that murmur signifies a foundational communicational and aesthetic principle in the text. The investigation into murmur as a mode of enunciation that withdraws from semantic clarity is pursued by means of three interpretative axes: murmur as symptom of desire versus repression, of nostalgia and of a pneumatic conception of poetry.