Romantic lie and romantic truth

romantic Lie and truth Romanesque (1961) is a test of Rene Girard.

Elaborate concepts

The relation of desire is not binary (subject-object) but triangular (subject, mediator, object). The subject wishes the object wished by a third, the “mediator”, who is a model: by wishing the object, the subject aims in fact the being of the mediator. In a literary work, if the mediator is revealed one deals with the romantic truth; if not it is about romantic lie.

External mediation: the distance subject/mediator is insuperable.

The external mediation characterizes the cases where the subject and the mediator cannot be in relation of inter-competition. It is the case between Don Quichotte and Amadis De Gaulle.

Internal mediation: the mediator wishes the => object becomes rival, model-obstacle.

Here, the distance separating the subject from the mediator is too close. The effect of the mimetic competition is felt, and the mediator becomes the rival then, i.e. a model obstacle. For example, Sancho Panza and Don Quichotte this example is not the paragon of the internal mediation.

Literary evolution: during the history of the literature (of Cervantès with Proust) the mediator is increasingly close to the hero, the mediation is increasingly internal.

Don Quichotte, Cervantès:

- mediator of Don Quichotte = Amadis de Gaulle

- mediator of Sancho Panza = Don Quichotte

Vanity Stendhal ienne, snobbery & love proustiens represent this tension.

At Dostoïevski, the hero is with the catches with a rival whose influence is attractive and irritating; he oscillates between exaltation and despair, between passion for the rival and hatred towards him.

Julien Sorel: to insulate itself.

Raskolnikov: to join the others.

But it is the same thing in both cases: at the same time to be left oneself and to find oneself.

To take the posture of the creator: retreat compared to the life, with its existence.

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