Tzvetan Todorov - What Is Literature For

What Is Literature for?
Author(s): Tzvetan Todorov and John Lyons

Source: New Literary History, Vol. 38, No. 1, What Is Literature Now? (Winter, 2007), pp. 1332
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20057987 .
Accessed: 07/01/2015 09:33
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
New Literary History.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Is Literature
What
Tzvetan
far
As
back
as
I can
For?
Todorov
I see
remember,
surrounded
myself
by
books.
Both of my parents were professional

librarians; there were always
too many books in our house.
were
They
always coming up with
new
to
for
hold
the
books accumulated
them; meanwhile,
plans
shelving
in the bedrooms
and the hallways, forming fragile piles that I had to
I quickly learned to read and began
to devour classic
crawl between.
stories
in children's
versions: the Arabian Nights, the tales of Grimm and

Tom
Andersen,
Sawyer, Oliver Twist, and Les Mis?rables. One day when I
was eight, I read a whole novel; Imust have been very
I
proud because
wrote in my diary: "Today I read On Grandpa's Knees, a
223-page book,
in an hour and a half!"
As a student in junior high school and high school, I continued
to love
to plunge
into the world
reading. It always gave me a shiver of delight
of
or
the writers?classics
contemporaries,
Bulgarian
or
foreign?whose
I now was reading in complete

I could satisfy my curios
editions.
live
without
adventures,
ity,
experience
fright and happiness,
putting
that troubled my dealings with boys and girls of
up with the frustrations
to do
my own age, among whom I lived. I did not know what I wanted
when I grew up, but I was certain that it would have
to do
something
with literature. Would
I be a writer myself?
I gave it a try: I composed
a
on the lives of dwarfs and
in
in
acts
three
verses,
poems
doggerel
play
even
a
I
I
novel?but
started
didn't
giants,
get past the first page. I soon
books
felt
what
that
would
such
writing
come
later,
was
not
I chose
my
my
vocation.
major
Without
at
the
university:
knowing
I was
sure
for
going
to
of Sofia; my profession
study literature. In 1956 Iwent to the University
would be talking about books.
bloc, and all humanities
Bulgaria was then part of the Communist
courses were
disciplines were shaped by the official ideology. Literature
half scholarship
and half propaganda:
literary works past and present
were
and measured
to the standards of Marxism-Le
weighed
according
to show how books
ninism. We were required
the correct
represented
how they failed to do this. Neither
in
otherwise,
ideology?or,
believing
Communism
that many
nor
of my
being
rebellious,
especially
countrymen
took:
in public,
I retreated
silence
into
or
stance
lip service
New Literary History, 2007, 38: 13-32

to
14
NEW
official
the
in
slogans;
an
private,
intense
HISTORY
and
meetings
lectures,
that no one would

the ones who
doctrine,
suspect to be the spokes

had been lucky enough
or those who lived
of Marxism-Leninism
to authors
devoted
especially
people for Communist
to write before the imposition
in countries where
they could write
To
of
life
LITERARY
our
complete
university
freely.
we
degree,
to
had
a master's
compose
thesis at the end of our fifth year. How could I write about literature
one of the
under to the dominant
without knuckling
ideology? I chose
on the study
me avoid the orthodoxy.
I
concentrated
let
that
only paths
in
For instance,
value in themselves.
of things that had no ideological
nature of the text itself, its linguistic
the material
works of literature,
of
form. I was certainly not alone in doing this: the Russian Formalists
them. At the
the 1920s had blazed this trail, and others soon followed
for
university,
our
instance,
most
interesting
was
professor
specialist
For my thesis I did a comparison

of two versions of a
in versification.
a
of the twentieth
from
the
author
beginning
long novella by Bulgarian
to
the
I
limited
and
changes he had made
century,
grammatical
myself
one
from
the
tense
perfect
"in
more
this
how
know
in my
favor.
as we
to
used
than
frequent
and I ran no risk of violating
necessarily
Europe,"
cat-and-mouse
A
say
the
time,
along
that
is, on
the "Iron Curtain"

(an image that we did not
was
it
because
just about impossible).
crossing
as
reputation
where
unite
the
city
arts
of
I could pursue my
my
private
and
literature
and
my
public
to
ended?
a
for
leave
the
the
other
year
side
of
think at all exaggerated

its
I chose Paris because
me!
dazzled
This
was
limits, where
love of literature without
convictions
have
would
game
came
chance
at
intransitive
ones,
replaced
. .This
the
way
imperfect.
verbs
the censor,
escaped
the
of
taboos
Party.
never
I will
transitive
other:
the
became
Iwrote
everything
ideological
not
to
version
occupation,
and
thus
place
I could
escape
the collective
regime in which
spread by the totalitarian
schizophrenia
I had been living.
In
than I thought.
As it turned out, things were a bit more difficult
to
used
at
I
had
course
the
studies
of
the
gotten
paying
my
university,
to the features of literary works that escaped
attention
ideology: style,
composition,
narrative
modes?in
short,
literary
technique.
Because
at
since
first I was sure that I would be staying for only a year in France,
to
learn
I
wanted
that was the length of the passport they had given me,
were neglected
and marginalized
these
about
They
subjects.
everything
in Bulgaria, where they did little to advance the Communist
cause, but in
France, the land of freedom,
they would be studied in depth! Yet I had
trouble finding any such courses in Parisian universities.
Literary study
I had no idea how to find
was divided up by nations and by centuries;
to the things that interested me.
the professors who paid any attention

IS LITERATURE
WHAT
15
FOR?
And itwas certainly difficult for a foreign student like me to find his way
institutions and their curricula.
around the labyrinth of academic
I had with me a letter from the dean of the faculty of letters of the
So one day in May, 1963,
of Sofia to his Parisian counterpart.
University
on the door of an office in the Sorbonne
I knocked
(at the time the
the door of the dean of the faculty of letters, the
only Paris university),
historian Aimard. When he had read the letter, he asked me what I was
to continue
the study of style, lan
looking for. I told him that I wanted
and
guage,
literary
theory?in
"But
general.
you
can't
these
study
things
in?" Feeling
the
literature do you want to specialize
in general! What
floor collapsing under me, I replied rather pitifully that French literature
would do. I realized at the same time that my French was getting mixed
up; itwas a bit shaky at the time. The dean cast a condescending
glance
literature with
that I would do better to study Bulgarian
and suggested
a
must
specialist?there
be
some
in France.
I was a little discouraged,

but I continued my quest, asking around
I
few
And so one day a professor of psychology,
the
knew.
among
people
said: "I know
the friend of a friend, hearing me explain my troubles,
someone
in these oddball
else who is interested
subjects; he's a teach
at
the
Sorbonne
named
G?rard
Genette."
We met in a dark
assistant
ing
hallway
in
rue
where
Serpente,
hit it off right away. He

was
with
professor
there
explained
seminar
were
to me,
at
the
several
among
des
?cole
classrooms,
other
things,
Hautes
Etudes,
and
we
that there
where
we could see each other again. The name of this professor

(I had never
heard it before) was Roland Barthes.
The beginning
of my professional
life in France
is linked to these
encounters.
It did not take me long to realize that one year in Paris
was not going to be enough and that I needed
to stay longer in France.
a dissertation
to do my first doctorate,
I registered with Barthes
that I
to the CNRS (National
in 1966. Soon after, I was appointed
submitted
Center
for
Scientific
Research),
where
I have
spent
I did a French
Meanwhile,
suggestion,
of the Russian Formalists,
little known in France,
of Literature, that came out in 1965. Later, Genette
series, and
Po?tique and an associated monograph
at Genette's
at the university
the literary curriculum
into nations and centuries
and to open
have
to free
my
whole
career.
translation of the work

under the title Theory
and I ran the journal
we tried to influence
it from fragmentation
it toward what
literary works
in common.
In the following years I gradually

life. I married,
settled into French
had children, and became a French citizen. I began to vote and to read
in public life, because
I was
the newspaper,
interested
becoming more
was
not
it
controlled
that
by ideological
discovering
necessarily
dog
mas, as it was in totalitarian countries. Without
falling into unqualified

16
NEW
I was
admiration,
see
to
happy
that
was
France
LITERARY
pluralist
HISTORY
democracy,
in turn had an
respectful of each individual's freedom. This realization
of literary analysis: the thought
impact on my attitude toward methods
in each work, the values that it transmits, no longer had to be
present
into ready-made
and therefore
I no
containers,
squeezed
ideological
set
to
to
needed
them
aside
and
not
them.
This
led
me,
longer
ignore
to deny what was then called "structural analysis" of
but
works,
literary
to include the useful things from that analysis alongside
other forms of
the overall meaning
of the work. Structural
study in pursuing
analysis
one doesn't attack but that
had become
like philology:
that
something
one doesn't
especially feel the need to defend either. Since realizing this,
toward the end of the 1970s, I have lost interest in studying the methods
of analysis and have instead engaged
in analysis itself. In other words, I
to the discovery of the authors of the past.
devote myself
that moment
on, my love of literature was no longer confined by
a
to acquire new tools
in
education
totalitarian
my
country. So I needed
for my work: I felt the need to learn about the discoveries
and concepts
now
of psychology,
and
Since
the
authors'
ideas
anthropology,
history.
From
to center
returned
At
the
sions.
of
same
verbal
of
ideas about man
them
and
better,
in
societies,
philosophy.
the
time
Literature
to understand
in order
in the history
myself
and political
moral
I decided,
stage,
to immerse
does
utterances
ofthat
object
not
emerge
which
with
literature
shares
on
took
literature,
study,
a void
from
but
an
from
new
dimen
environment
characteristics.
many
It
is no accident that the boundary between

literature and other discourses
has often shifted. I felt myself attracted by these other forms of expres
it. In The Conquest of
sion, not at the expense of literature but alongside
America,
to understand
I read
another,
the sixteenth
In
poraries.
better
century
the
Russian
and
of
course
German
of my
very
Spanish
along with
in the writings
myself
how
accounts
the
and
on
who were
concentration
our
this
camps;
of
conquistadores
contem
and Mayan
moral
taken
one
encounter
cultures
travelers
those of their Aztec
reflections
of people
different
life,
I immersed
away as prisoners
led me
to write
to
Facing
theExtreme. The letters of several writers enabled me, in Les Aventuriers de

an existential
ambition:
that of offering one's life to
Vabsolu, to question
serve
beauty.
historical
The
works,
texts
that
I was
testimonies,
narratives,
reading?personal
reflections,
letters,
memoirs,
texts
anonymous
from
not have,
described
like literary works, the status of fiction, because

lived experience.
like literary works,
However,
they directly
me
let
dimensions
of
the
discover
unknown
world, they moved me
they
me
and
think.
made
profoundly,
they
In other words, the field of literature has broadened
for me, because
it
folklore?did
now
includes,
alongside
poems,
novels,
short
stories,
and
dramatic

works,
IS LITERATURE
WHAT
the
domain
immense
and
I immediately
as
I did
inflict upon me;
forms
a continuum
them
life but not radically

us
prompts
see
to
helps me
longer
and
me
helps
different
other
that
them.
it, literature
to conceive
ways
real
essays,
that
seek
people
but
lived experiences
understand
from
use,
live. I no
wounds
does not replace
literature
with
answer
to avoid
in adolescence,
could
universe,
why
think of is that literature
literature,
than daily
asks me
or
personal
public
I love
the
literature,
for
written
of narrative
If someone
reflections.
in
17
FOR?
and
Denser
our
expands
it. We
organize
from what other people give us: first our parents and then
the other people near us. Literature opens to the infinite this possibility
of interaction
and thus enriches us infinitely. It brings us irreplaceable
sensations
through which the real world becomes more furnished with
an
more beautiful.
Far from being a simple distraction,
and
meaning
are all formed
entertainment
reserved
us fulfill our human
for
educated
literature
people,
lets
each
one
of
potential.
Literature
to the Absurd
Reduced
As
time passed,
I discovered
with surprise that the important
role I
to
was
not
literature
This
assigned
recognized
by everyone.
discrepancy
struck me first of all in regard to what is taught in schools. I have no
of teaching in French lyc?es, and only a little at the university
experience
once
I became a father, I could not ignore my children's pleas
level; but,
was due. And even
for help on the eve of quizzes or when homework
to
though I did not invest myself totally in this, I began to feel a bit miffed
see that my advice and help tended to get nothing but mediocre
grades!
Later on I got a broader view of literary teaching
in French schools as
a member,
from 1994 to 2004, of a pluridisciplinary
board,
consulting
of
the
of
National
Education.
That
is
I
when
understood
part
Ministry
that there was a wholly different
idea of literature, not just on the part
of a few individual teachers, but in the theory behind
the official direc
tives
that
teachers.
guided
I turn
to the Official Bulletin of the Ministry

of National
Education
with
the
the
(number 6, August 31, 2000)
lyc?e curriculum,
specifically
for
French.
Under
the
of
"Overview
studies,"
guidelines
teaching
heading
states: "The study of texts helps to form student reflections
the document
on:
literary
and
cultural
and
genres
history,
the
construction
of
meaning
and the specificity of texts, argumentation

and the effects of discourse
on those who receive it." The rest of the text
expands on these headings
and explains
that genres "are studied methodically,"
that "registers (for
instance,
"reflecting
the
comic)"
on
the
are
production
dealt
with
and
in
the
reception
next-to-last
of
texts
year
of
constitutes

lyc?e,
an
that
object
18
LITERARY
NEW
of
As
its own
in
study
tion" will
now
in
right
"considered
and
that
"the elements
lyc?e,"
in a more
analytic
way."
are based
on a choice:
instructions
be
a whole,
these
of
HISTORY
argumenta
that
the
aim
of
that literary analysis

literary analysis is to learn about the instruments
uses. Reading
the students
poems and novels does not lead to making
think about the human condition,
about the individual and society, about
love and hate, and about joy and despair, but about critical concepts,
traditional or modern.
At school, pupils do not learn what lit
talks about but instead what critics talk about.
whether
erature
In
school
every
teachers
subject,
a choice,
face
one
is so
that
funda
that they do not even notice itmost of the time. We can formulate
a bit for the purposes
are we
of the discussion:
it this way, simplifying
or
about
the
itself
about
its
teaching knowledge
discipline
object? And
mental
case:
in our
thus,
illustrated
works
are
that
one
should
a selection
with
study,
above
all,
considered
can
that
essential,
be
to be
methods,
analytic
of literary works? Or
one
should
accessed
the
study
the
through
is the goal and which

is the means?
broadest
range of methods? Which
is required and what remains elective?
What
For other school subjects this choice ismade much more clearly. We
set of disciplines
teach, on one hand, mathematics,
physics, biology?a
in
mind
their
evolution.
On
the other hand,
(the sciences), always keeping
we teach history, and not one method
of historical
among
investigation
For
others.
in
example
the
first
year
of
in France,
lyc?e
it is considered
to bring to life, for the students, turning points in European

important
the birth of the monotheistic
Greek
religions, Renais
democracy,
history:
sance
history,
even
or
nor
if we
so
and
humanism,
of mentalities,
forth.
economic
these
not
do
or
history,
when
concepts
the
to
choose
military,
and concepts
the methodology
use
We
teach
the
or
diplomatic,
history
religious
of each of these approaches,

arises.
occasion
. .
And yet the same choice arises for French
(or English or Spanish
. ) as a
current
in
French
is
reflected
the
the
and
way
taught,
subject;
official curriculum,
(as in physics),
prefers "the study of the discipline"
even though we could instead choose
"the study of the object"
(as in
text
I
above
shows
this
official
that
The
choice, among its
quote
history).
in
of
A
the
first
instructions.
student
other
year
many
lyc?e must above
all succeed
and
the essential
in "mastering
of
"positions
enunciation";
in other
notions
and
of genre
the
words,
student
needs
register"
to be
and into rhetoric and

into the study of semiotics and pragmatics,
can ask ourselves:
we
for
these
due
all
With
respect
disciplines,
poetics.
to
in
All
these subjects are
learn
school?
should they be the main
thing
initiated
abstract
with
constructs,
themselves,
from
created
concepts
literary works; none

their
by
literary
analysis
of these subjects derives
meaning
or
from
their
from
in order
to deal
the literary works
history.

WHAT
IS LITERATURE
In
and
most
class,
and
of
the
registers,
and
we
here
But
French
time,
internal
works.
19
cannot
teachers
of signifying
modes
metonymy,
literary
FOR?
and effects
external
in
genres
metaphor
must
focalization?they
another
shift
discover
teach
just
of argument,
also
literary
study
teaching.
One concrete
is the way we teach, in 2005, the subject "Lit
example
erature" (Lettres) in the last year of the specialization
L (literature) of a
are
Parisian
vast
There
to
four
major
lyc?e.
subjects
study, such as "major
and "verbal language and images," and with these there
literary models"
are coordinated
literary works, respectively Chr?tien de Troyes's Perceval
and Kafka's The Trial (along with Orson Welles's film). However,
the test
the
on the
students
all
the
school
and
then
questions
get
year
during
baccalaureate
one
examination
type. They
single
in
work
to
relation
an
ours.
for
of
the
So
the
students
are
not
whole,
component
on
the
of the book as a whole
asked
about
the
of
proportion,
of one
role
of
just
of the
of
meaning
for its epoch

a character,
of
or of a detail
during the quest for the Grail, not about the
of that quest itself. The student will be asked whether
The
episode,
significance
Trial
structure
the
overwhelming
the function
nor on the
meaning
that component
or
in an
are,
concern
to
belongs
the
comic
register
or
to
the
absurd,
rather
than
about
Kafka's place in the thought of his period.

How could the way we teach literature in schools have come to this?
The simple answer is that it reflects a change
in university
If
teaching.
most
of
new
French
teachers
have
this
it's
be
lyc?e
adopted
approach,
cause literary studies in the
university has evolved along the same lines:
before being
lyc?e teachers they were students. The shift took place a
earlier, in the 1960s and 1970s and often in the name of
generation
"structuralism." I participated
in this movement.
Should I feel responsible
for the state of the discipline
today?
When
I came to France, at the beginning
of the 1960s, literary studies
in the university were, as I said, dominated
concerns
by very different
from those of today. Alongside
the explication de texte (which was essen
students were mainly expected
to accept
tially an empirical approach),
the national
and historical
framework.
The rare specialists who did
something
else
taught
outside
France
or
not
in
literature
departments.
at length on the
of works, graduate
reflecting
meaning
students made exhaustive
inventories of all that surrounded
such works:
the author's biography,
the possible prototypes of the characters, variants
Rather
than
of the text, and the way the work's

viewed it. I felt the
contemporaries
need to give balance
to that approach with different
that I
approaches
had learned about from my readings in other
languages: from the Rus
sian Formalists,
from the German
theorists of style and forms (Spitzer,
I also
Auerbach,
Kayser), from the authors of American New Criticism.
wanted
scholars to make explicit the concepts
that they used in literary

20
NEW
to
than
rather
analysis,
in
proceed
intuitive
totally
LITERARY
HISTORY
manner.
Toward
to create a "poetics," that is, the study

this goal, I worked with Genette
of the properties
of literary discourse.
as then?the
To my way of thinking?now
intrinsic approach
(the
of
relation
of
the
constituents
of
the
the
study
literary work to one
the extrinsic approach
should complement
another)
(the study of the
and
aesthetic
This
increased
historical,
context).
ideological,
precision
in the tools of analysis would allow more refined and rigorous study, but
the final goal would
remain the understanding
of the meaning
of the
a
In
works.
with
conference
1969,1
literary
organized
Serge Doubrovsky
on "The Teaching
at Cerisy-la-Salle.
of Literature"
Rereading
today my
comments
in the debate,
I find them clumsy (they are the
concluding
of spoken remarks) but clear on this point. I presented
the
transcription
idea of poetics and I added,
"The disadvantage
of this type of work is,
so to speak, itsmodesty?the
fact that it does not go very far and that it
will never be anything other than a first step, one that consists precisely
at work in the literary text, and
the categories
of noting, of identifying
not
of
My
to
of
speaking
intention
of
that of
(and
a better
create
sense
the
balance
the
text."1
the people
between
around
the
intrinsic
me
at the time) was
and
the
and
extrinsic,
also between
theory and practice. But that is not how things turned
out. The spirit of May, 1968, which did not itself have anything
to do
with
the
of
direction
literary
study,
completely
the
changed
structure
of
the university and the existing hierarchies.

The pendulum
did not stop
went
it
the
in
reached
and
far
the opposite
when
very
midpoint
swinging
direction,
proaches
the
reaching
on
and
the
Such a change
by
the
categories
in literary
of
influence
point
structuralism
of
exclusive
of
literary
intrinsic
ap
theory.
study at the university

or,
alone;
on
concentration
rather,
cannot
we
need
be explained
to understand
structuralism
such a powerful
influence. This brings me
acquired
of
literature.
back to the underlying
conception
During a period of over
a century, literary history dominated
the university curriculum. This was,
a study of causes that led to the creation of the work: social,
principally,
how
political, ethnic, and psychic forces of which the literary text was presumed
to be the result. Now, this history could be the study of the effects of the
on other
its impact on the public, and its influence
text, its diffusion,
authors.
The
was
aim
to
situate
the
literary
work
was viewed with suspicion.

the study of meaning
was held to be destined
forever to lack scientific
to
lowly
rejected
sensibility,
or
writers
newspaper
the view of literature

or
as
an
interpretation
As
critics.
a result,
as the embodiment
of
in a causal
chain,
while
Such
study of meaning
rigor and was thus left
the
university
of a thought
the world.

tradition
or of a
IS LITERATURE
WHAT
FOR?
21
in the
This long tradition has been pursued and taken to an extreme
recent phase of literary studies. It has been decided now that "the work
imposes the advent of an order that breaks with the existing order, the
of a regime that obeys its own laws and its own logic"2 to the
affirmation
exclusion of a relation with the "empirical world" or with "reality" (words
are
that
now
used
between
only
In
marks).
quotation
other
the
words,
literary work is now portrayed as a closed object made of language, self

In 2006 in the French university,
these abusive
sufficient and absolute.
are
generalizations
always
of
to one
relate
the work
as
presented
learn the dogma

lyc?e students
relation to the rest of the world
self-evident.
Not
to which
another.
no
This,
doubt,
surprisingly,
has no
the parts
literature
according
and they study only
the way
is one
of
reasons
the
in just a few de
students find the literary specialization
uninteresting:
with the literature
cades the number of those getting the baccalaureate
option has gone from 33% to 10%. Why study literature when literature
is only an illustration of the tools to study literature? At the end of their
with a brutal
confronted
studies, students of literature find themselves
in their turn teachers of literature or
choice: either they must become
they must join the unemployed.
Unlike primary and secondary
schools, the French university does not
So in the university the
have to follow a centrally established
curriculum.
most
even
and
varied
the dominant
Still,
about
the world,
teachers
of
an
provide
tendency
and this tendency
French.
recent
The
alternative.
to declare,
dogma?that
ing nothing,
of
are
thought
represented.
to see literature as a discourse

has a noticeable
impact on future
is to refuse
it is true,
can,
raise
this
know
they
about
questions
in advance,
not
does
to truth and values, but only
relates
because
movement
"deconstructionist"
Its partisans
the way the literary work

rather,
currents
contradictory
to find?or
since
this
is their
the work is fatally incoherent,

that it succeeds
in affirm
and that it subverts its own values: this is what it means
a
to deconstruct
text.
Unlike
the
classic
set
who
structuralist,
aside
any
to look
the truth of texts, the poststructuralist
is willing
question
at such questions,
but only to proclaim
that they will never be answered.
about
The
text
can
only
state
one
it is forever inaccessible.
literature and, especially
whose
truth,
namely
that
truth
does
not
exist
or
that
This conception
of language extends beyond
concerns
in American
universities,
disciplines
the world had never previously been in doubt.
with
relationship
even the natural sciences are described
as
So history,
and
law,
just so
their
with
rules
and
identified
with
conventions;
many
literary genres,
to
own
is
which
its
these
literature,
rules,
only supposed
obey
disciplines
have become
in their turn closed and self-sufficient
objects.
I understand
that certain lyc?e teachers are delighted
at this develop
ment:
rather
than
hesitate
before
the
unmanageable
mass
of
information

22
NEW
about
available
to
teach
each
functions
and
HISTORY
to do
that all they have
they know
literary work,
six
Jakobson's
LITERARY
Greimas's
six
the
actants,
is
analepse
the prolepse,
and so forth. It will thus be much
easier, later on, to
make sure that their students learned their lesson well. But have we really
lead me to prefer the approach
gained by this change? Several arguments
on
of conceiving
studies
of history rather than on that
the
model
literary
and
of
that
than about
is no
there
to
seeking
physics?as
rather
inform
us
an
about
extrinsic
the arcana of the discipline
consensus,
teachers
among
literature,
object,
itself. The first argument

in the
researchers
and
is
literary
the core of the literary discipline. The

field, about what should constitute
structuralists now dominate
the schools, just as the historians
did in the
as
in
and
the
scientists
the
future.
There
will
past
might
political
always
a bit arbitrary in such a choice. Not all practitioners
of
be something
literary
are
studies
on
in agreement
the
list of
the main
"registers"?nor
on the usefulness
into their field. So this
such a concept
of introducing
an abuse of power. Besides,
the lack of symmetry is obvious:
constitutes
is
while in physics the person who does not know the law of gravitation
one
not
is
French
the
the
who
has
read
Les
in
ignorant person
ignorant,
Fleurs du mal. It is a good bet that Rousseau,
Stendhal, and Proust will be
to readers
well-known
conceptual
humility
works
long
constructs
we
when
themselves.
after
the
names
teach
our
own
We?specialists,
of
about
theories
critics,
theorists
today's
and we
will be forgotten,
works
rather
lack of
than
most
professors?are
their
and
reveal a certain
the
of
the
time only dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants.

should disappear
that the teaching of the discipline
Does this mean
of
the
of
works?
in
favor
No, but each kind of
teaching
literary
entirely
own
In
have
its
should
studies, it is right to
university
teaching
place.
teach
(also)
concepts
approaches,
used,
techniques.
Secondary
teaching,
to literary specialists but to everyone, cannot have

which is not addressed
the same object: it is literature itself that is for everyone, not literary stud
teachers
ies.We should prefer the former to the latter. Secondary-school
task: to internalize what they learned at the university
have a difficult
it, to make of it an invisible tool. The meaning
but, instead of teaching
of the work is not to be confused with the student's purely subjective
itmay
To reach the meaning,
but is based on knowledge.
understanding
a
to
of
limited
structural
the
student
have
be useful for
analysis
vocabulary
or information
from literary history. However, never should the study of
the literary work be substituted for the study of
these means for entering
to construct a
is the goal. Scaffolding may be necessary
meaning, which
once the
building but the former should not be substituted for the latter;
to
ismeant
is done, the scaffolding
disappear. The innovations
building
of
structural
remain
analysis
a means
and
from
do
previous
not
become
decades
goals
are welcome
in
as
long
themselves.

as
they
IS LITERATURE
WHAT
We
to go
need
the means
not
not
should
end.
the
of the works
rule,
It
must
We
is not
become
study
that we consider
of the past
the
now
reader,
some
nor
the
goal,
ourselves
ask
also
nonprofessional
to master
in order
we
that
only
text's
meaning
to the strictly intrinsic approach, while literary

a context and in dialogue with it; it is not only
limit ourselves
always exist within
forget
23
further.
ifwe
badly
works
that
FOR?
the
in
of
us
make
technique
ultimate
purpose
of study. As a general
worthy
as
method
the
about
the
reads
past,
nor
reading
to
these
works
informa
gather
tion about the society in which they were created, but to find a meaning
that permits him to better understand
human beings and the world, to
The knowledge
discover
in them a beauty that enriches his existence.
in turn, is not an end in itself, but rather the royal road
of literature,
of each person. The direction
that today's
leading to the fulfillment
literary
we
studies
studied
have
taken,
next
metonymy,
we
risk of leading us to a dead end,

lead toward a love of literature.
The reductive
of
conception
classrooms
and university
newspaper
book
away from
turning
week
this horizon
("this week
runs
personification"),
to say, hardly
appears not only

it is abundantly
represented
authors
among
the
seems
to
in lyc?e
among
literature
even
and
all went
to
and, needless
courses;
reviewers
on
go
themselves.
Is
this
to school
and many studied literature in the

surprising? They
where
that
literature
is self-referential
learned
and that
university,
they
the only way to appreciate
it is to show the way its constituent
parts
interact.
authors
If today's
fit this image, however

themselves.
We
can
is so lacking
literature
receive
ourselves
in interest
whether
works
illustrate
contemporary
cultivate
construction,
ingenious
echoes
and winks
text,
symmetry,
is not
a reason
France.
formalist
view
the
reader.
to
need
such
why
of
means
mechanical
to
they
start out as critics
outside
this
the
praise,
they often
for anyone
Many
They
the
critical
it is. Besides,
pallid
ask
to
hope
literature.
to
However,
generate
this
is
view
the only one prominent

in French literature and book reviews as the
Another
trend iswhat we can call a nihilistic
twenty-first century begins.
to which people are stupid and vicious and
view of the world, according
are the main
in which destruction
and violence
truth and life is only
not
the
start
of
a disaster.
In
this
case
we
cannot
say
that
literature
does
not
describe
the world: rather than being the negation

of representation,
of negation. This fact does not keep such
literature is the representation
literature from being the object of formalist criticism. For this criticism
the world presented
in the book is self-sufficient, without relation to the
to analyze it without
outside world; so it is legitimate
asking about the
relevance of the opinions

in the book or about the truthful
expressed
ness of the depiction
that it gives. History
shows this clearly: it is easy
to go from formalism
to nihilism
and back, and one can even profess
both simultaneously.

24
NEW
In
the
turn,
nihilist
one
has
tendency
major
LITERARY
HISTORY
and
exception,
this
con
cerns
the fragment of the world occupied

by the author himself. This
a
derives
from
and
narcissistic
attitude
that leads
practice
complacent
the author to describe
in minute
detail his slightest feelings:
the more
more
the world is repulsive,
the
the self is fascinating!
Even saying bad
is essential
is
things about yourself does not destroy the pleasure. What
to talk about yourself; what you say is secondary. We can call this third
and nihilism,
from the
upon formalism
tendency
solipsism,
following
name of that
theory that holds that the speaking subject
philosophical
is the only existing being. The implausibility
of this theory condemns
it
to
status,
marginal
creativity.
literary
not
but does
certainly,
One
of its recent
variants
it from
stop
is
something
being
called
a source
of
"autofic
to telling
the author devotes just as much
attention
tion," self-fiction:
she frees herself from any referential
about her humors but in addition
thus profiting
from the presumed
constraint,
simultaneously
indepen
of
dence
fiction
and
from
the
of
pleasure
self-promotion.
linked. They are both based on

solipsism are obviously
the idea that there is a radical break between
the self and the world,
that there is no shared world. I cannot declare
the
or, in other words,
can
world
I
first
worthless
exclude
I
unless
myself. Conversely,
totally
to devote myself solely to the description
decide
of my own experiences
rest
to
if
I
of
the
the
world
be
without
value, and, moreover,
only
judge
Nihilism
of
no
and
concern
to me.
These
two
the
human
and
material
of
visions
the nihilist leaves himself

incomplete:
of the desolate vision that he depicts;
framework
the
are
world
thus
equally
and those who resemble him out

to represent
the solipsist neglects
that
renders
his
own
existence
pos
and solipsism complement

the formalist choice more than
it:
in
in
refute
each
but
different
case,
ways, the external world,
they
the one that I have in common with others,
In
is denied or devalued.
this gesture, contemporary
French
literature is at one with the idea of
sible. Nihilism
that we find at the root of teaching
literature
limited
and
impoverished
What
and criticism:
an absurdly
conception.
Can Literature
Do?
in 1873, John Stuart Mill tells of the

In his Autobiography, published
severe depression
in his twentieth year. He was "un
that he experienced
or
one of those moods
to
excitement;
enjoyment
pleasurable
susceptible
at other times becomes
when what is pleasure
insipid or indifferent."3
All the remedies
that he tried turn out to be ineffectual
and a lengthy
to
out
He
settled
in.
continued
habitual
in a
carry
gestures
melancholy
mechanical
way, but without
feeling
anything.
This
painful

state lasted
WHAT
IS LITERATURE
25
FOR?
A book that Mill read

little by little, it diminished.
for two years. Then,
a
moment
at
role
in
his cure: a collection
this
chance
played
special
by
What he especially found there is the expres
of poems by Wordsworth.
"In them I
sion of his own feelings, exalted in the beauty of the poems:
and imagi
seemed to draw from a source of inward joy, of sympathetic
....
I
native pleasure, which could be shared in by all human beings
to be made
to feel that there was real, permanent
in
needed
happiness
Wordsworth
taught me this, not only without
tranquil contemplation.
a greatly increased interest in, the common
turning away from, but with
common
and
(121).
destiny of human beings"
feelings
can do a lot. It can hold out a helping hand when we are
Literature
guide us toward the other human beings around
profoundly
depressed,
the world, and help us to live. By this
us, make us better understand
I don't
because
mean
that
it reveals
it
is,
a Wellness
essentially,
to us,
it can
the world
center
for
the
each
transform
also
of
soul;
but,
us
from
the inside. Literature has a vital role to play; but for that we need to take
in Europe
literature in both the broad and strong sense that dominated
now
that
is
end
of
the
nineteenth
and
until
the
up
century
marginalized
of literature triumphs. Ordinary
while an absurdly shrunken conception
to
to look to the books they read for something
readers, who continue
are
to
the
the
and
and
the
life,
critics,
give meaning
right,
professors,
writers who say that literature only talks of itself or that it only teaches
despair
are
If the
wrong.
were
readers
ordinary
not
right,
would
reading
to disappear
be condemned
quickly.
Like philosophy
and like the humanities,
literature ismade of thought
and knowledge
about the psychic and social world in which we live. The
reality
nothing
rightly,
human
that
literature
is more
that
Dante
second.
This
is, simply?yet,
This
experience.
us at least
teaches
complex?human
or Cervantes
as
condition
and that there
to understand
aims
even
the
greatest
is no incompatibility
is true
of
of
literature
between
in
general,
at
same
the
we
is why
as much
or
sociologists
about
there
say,
the
psychologists,
the first knowledge

but
time,
can
are
also
and the
specific
as well
differences.
The thinkers of the past, those of the Enlightenment
as those of the romantic era, tried to
us
them.
Let
recall
their
identify
some
and
add
others.
suggestions
A first set of dichotomies
ligible, the particular and
sets in opposition
the sensory and the intel
the general,
the individual and the universal.
or
Whether
this is through poetic monologue
litera
through narrative,
on
ture makes us live unique experiences;
the
other
hand,
philosophy,
the richness and diversity of
concepts. The first preserves
manipulates
what is lived, the second favors abstraction, which allows the formulation
of
or
general
laws. A
less accessible
simple
quality
consequence
of
of
this
contrast
texts. Dostoyevsky's
concerns
the more
Idiot can be read and

26
NEW
understood
countless
by
from
readers,
different
LITERARY
HISTORY
and
periods
cultures;
on the same novel or the same thematic would

commentary
philosophical
be accessible only to a minority with the habit of reading such texts. On
the other hand, for those who understand
of the
them, the propositions
the
of
have
ideas
without
philosopher
advantage
ambiguity,
presenting
of the characters of a novel or the metaphors
while the lived adventures
to many
of a poet lend themselves
interpretations.
In
an
representing
a statement,
make
more
than
she
imposes,
in an evocative
words
using
an
event,
the
reader
she makes
the
object,
incites
but
and
way
by
a movement
original
cannot
world
whose
contact.
needs?for
claim
same
the
narratives,
using
confirmation?the
By
and
examples,
will
continue
that of the other

as
prestige
assent
proposes
active.
a vibration of meaning,
it sets
our capacity to associate and
reverberations
truth and
Poets'
she
more
and
not
does
poet
one:
freer
reader
specific cases, the literary work produces

off our faculty of symbolic interpretation,
provoke
the
character,
to formulate
science
of many
after
long
interpreters
because
human
the
of the
truth
poetic
now
beings,
and
into the future. Public consensus

is the only way to legitimate
the move
"I like this work" to the statement,
from the statement
"This work tells
to state a truth
the truth." The assertive discourse
of a scientist hoping
another
possesses
be
immediately
In
this
from
true
case
not
do
The
can engage
arguments
in rational
reverie.
The
reader
tiveness
with
exactness.
At
every
to wait
have
to know
countries
of
moment,
for
the
call
instead
scientific
person
centuries
the
presented
in
society
making
or confirmed.
forth
is
is less
saying
readers
something
one
counterarguments:
in admiration
of remaining
text
to consult
and
author
it can
statement,
it will be refuted
whether
debate
is
she
to validation;
subjected
we
many
or not.
because
advantage:
likely
to
confuse
in a web
is immersed
and
seduc
of discourse
to which she must

that presents
itself to her as obvious truths, as dogmas
subscribe. These are the common places of a period, received ideas that
routines and stereotypes,
constitute
habits of thought,
public opinion,
or clich?s. Since
what we can also call "dominant
ideology," prejudice
we have thought
the Enlightenment,
that the duty of a human being
instead of settling for the ready-made
is to learn to think for herself,
her. But how to do this? In Emile,
that
she
finds surrounding
worldview
Rousseau
calls
this
of
process
apprenticeship
"negative
education"
far from
the person who aspires to autonomy
and suggests keeping
to
to imitate the opinions
of
in order
avoid any temptation
all books,
other
people
. . .Yet
we
can
follow
a different
logic:
received
wisdom,
a young mind.
especially
today, does not need books to gain control of
has already left its mark! The books that the young person
Television
takes hold of could help her set aside the "obvious truths" and free her

IS LITERATURE
WHAT
mind.
FOR?
has
Literature
27
to
role
special
unlike
here:
play
moral,
religious,
a system of precepts
or political discourses,
and
it does not formulate
that strikes down positions
that are explicitly
thus escapes the censorship
formulated.
truths?for
Disagreeable
a better
selves?have
of
chance
being
a whole
as
humanity
in a
expressed
or
our
for
work
literary
than
or scientific work.
in a philosophical
In a recent study, Richard Rorty proposes
another way to describe
of the world.4 He
the contribution
of literature to our understanding
renounces
to describe
this
the use of terms like "truth" or "knowledge"
contribution
for
edy
and
our
that
suggests
ignorance
literature
the world
of
not
does
so much
cure
rather
but
us
provide
our
of
a rem
"egotism,"
as the illusion of self-sufficiency. Reading novels, according

to
or political works than
him, is less like reading scientific, philosophical,
other people. Making
the
it is like a very different
meeting
experience:
understood
of
acquaintance
new
characters
literary
is like
new
meeting
people,
with
that we can discover right away what they are

the important difference
like inside. We thus know every act from the point of view of the person
it. The
does
who
less
these
characters
resemble
the more
us,
broaden
they
our horizon and enrich our universe. This internal broadening

(similar
to what representational
painting brings us) cannot be stated in abstract
it. It
and that iswhy we have so much difficulty describing
propositions,
consists
of
instead
in our
inclusion
the
new
of
consciousness
ways
of
be
new acquaintances
the ones that we already had. Meeting
ing alongside
does not change the content of our mind;
instead the container
itself is
of
the
mental
rather
than
the
transformed,
apparatus
perception
things
What
perceived.
for
compassion
ity
are more
novels
novels
part
us
give
with
is not
beings
the moral
of
new
different
information
from
sphere
is not truth but

horizon of that experience
Should we describe
the new understanding
we
gain
Rorty's
by
a novel
reading
suggestive
as
or
proposal,
a correction
as
the
ourselves;
than
of
a new
but
science.
in
The
love.
of the human
to our
of
discovery
egotism,
a new
capac
this
sense,
ultimate
world
that
according
truth
of unveil
to
in terminology
truth?5 The difference
ing, a necessarily
intersubjective
does not seem to me to be the crucial matter here, provided
that we
the
link
that
is
made
and
between
the
world
literature,
accept
strong
as well
boundary,
as
literature's
as
Rorty
specific
points
out,
contribution
does
not
to
separate
abstract
the
discourse.
argumentative
The
text
text but rather from all discourse, fictive or factual,

the imaginative
that describes a human world other than that of the subject: historians,
and journalists are all on the same side ofthat boundary
ethnographers,
as the novelist. They all participate
in what Kant, in a famous chapter
to be a necessary
of the Critique ofJudgment, considered
step toward a
from
common
sense,
in other words
toward our full humanness:
"to think by

28
NEW
in
oneself
putting
feel while
this
characters,
our
achieve
The
the
toward
tending
To
human."6
HISTORY
think
us
permits
universality,
to
and
or literary
real persons
to
calling.
one
that
other
any
of view of others,
of
way
unique
or, if one prefers,
truth of unveiling
intersubjective
world
of
position
the point
adopting
LITERARY
enters
to
thanks
encounter
the
the enlarged
a narrative
with
or
poetic
is the horizon within which

the literary text is inscribed. To be
in this sense of the term, is the only legitimate
truthful,
requirement
that we can make of it, but, as Rorty perceived,
that truth is thoroughly
text,
to
linked
our
moral
a famous
text,
exchange
were
a few months
truth,
Flaubert.
as well
affection
great
death,
they
The
as
great
the same
of 1876,
remark
several
exchanged
they tried to pinpoint
in which
con
this
literature,
Sand and Gustave
had
they
Sand's
before
letters on this subject
their
relationship
in
reread,
among
another, yet they knew that they did not have

of literature. At the end of 1875 and the beginning
conception
able
to
instructive
George
friends,
good
is
the
for one
respect
only
It
about
the one between
and morality,
two writers
education.
the nature
of
disagreement.7
think that Sand wants literature to

At a superficial reading one might
submit itself to morality, while Flaubert bases himself
solely on the rela
some of Sand's
seem to
to
true
And
is
truth.
it
that
tionship
expressions
since she appears to be essentially
take her in that direction
concerned
the
with
to
effect
bring
aim
his
I to
and
ers sadder while

that
the writers'
that
desolation
truth
to make
alone:
on
have
the
reader:
because
consolation,"
bring
she wished
was
works
them less unhappy.
"I have
to
tried
always
'You
are
he makes
his
Flaubert
going
read
replied
into
penetrate
the
had stopped there, it would be of

soul of things." If their disagreement
little interest, and we would be tempted to agree with Flaubert. Today's
reader,
after
is to dry
point
not
does
all,
the reader's
to focus
the
debate
that
believe
the
function
primary
tears. But Sand quickly went

on
two more
essential
of
literature
this starting
beyond
the writer's
topics:
place
the nature
of the truth that the writer reaches.

in his writ
that Flaubert did not show himself more
Sand regretted
a rule without
ex
in
the
made
nonintervention
but
he
had
novel
ing,
so
at
not
was
it
this:
much
his
absence
Sand
kept hammering
ception.
from the work that she blamed him for (besides, she believed
that this
in her work
absence
was
and
since
impossible,
the
thing
seen
cannot
be
from
separated
in the soul without

have a philosophy
vision)
. . .True
is
the
soul
holds the brush."
full
of
that
painting
in his replies: he knew well that he did not lack
Flaubert acquiesced
his work. He also knew that his
convictions
and that these permeated
: "One cannot
the viewer's
it appearing
concern
thing
for
is True,
truth
would
necessarily
it is good. Obscene
have
books
a moral
are only
effect.
immoral
"As
soon
because

as
they
WHAT
lack
IS LITERATURE
truth."
FOR?
he
What
29
wanted,
was
however,
that
his
not
ideas
be
spelled
out explicitly, but that they merely be suggested by the narrative:

it was
to
to
must
"from
the
book
the
moral
lesson
that
be
the
reader
draw
up
itmust be because
the book is bad or
there." If that does not happen,
because
is a
reader
the
However,
simpleton!
criticism
real
Sand's
is elsewhere:
she
what
was
deplored
not
She
Flaubert's
absence from his work, it was his way of being present.
loved and appreciated
her friend, but she did not find the man she knew
in the man who dwells in his books. "Nourish yourself on the ideas and
... All
sentiments
stored up in your head and your heart
your life of
affection,
and
protection,
the most
principled
literature,
want
you
charming
man
to be,
not
I know
But once
What
man."
are
you
start working
you
another
why,
that
proves
goodness
simple
in the world.
she
with
blamed
him for, in short, is that he did not leave space inside his work for beings
like himself and therefore did not produce a faithful enough picture of
the world.
the
Her
The
Good.
also
humanity
requirement
is to
literature
includes
the
author
and
Whatever
do,
you
concerns
literature
human
represent
the reader.
not
Truth,
but
existence,
cannot
"You
is yourself
is still
narrative
your
of
for man
from this contemplation;
yourself
reader.
paramount
aim
of
abstract
and mankind
a conversation
is the
between
you
and him." The narrative

is enclosed within a dialogue
of which humans
are not only the object but also the protagonists.
Sand knew that Flaubert
tried most of all to be true, even if the
that
he
chose
path
passed through continual
striving for proper form,
he
because
or
in the False."
concerns
controversy
secret
harmony,
of my
not
I am
sentences,
It is not
sure
that this method
the
of
type
relation
necessary
between
"When I find a bad alliteration
That was his method:
in one
repetition
around
in a
believed
form and content.
stumbling
her; for her,
the
but
searching
I am
that
bothers
nature
the
of what
is discovered. Writers
like Flaubert
"have more
study and talent than I
do. Only what I think they are missing,
and you especially,
is a clear and
extensive view of life." The picture of life that appears in Flaubert's books
is not
he
true
is. He
more,
enough
because
is not good
nuance,
nuance
it is too monotonous.
or bad. He
which
is good
is for
me
"I want
and bad. But he

the
goal
of
art."
to
see man
as
is something
She
returned
to this in her following

letter: "True reality ismixed with the beautiful
and the ugly, the dull and the brilliant." Those writers known as realists
a choice
made
that betrays reality: they obey an arbitrary convention
that requires them to show only the somber aspect of the world. Nihilists
betray not the Good, but the True.
The
between Sand and Flaubert

is their phi
origin of this difference
of
life.
told
his
lover
who
Louise
"I
hate life"
Flaubert,
Collet,
losophy
and also "life is tolerable as long as you are not alive,"8 seemed to Sand

30
LITERARY
NEW
to be
"a Catholic
like
he detested
life" were
tence
was
who
somewhere
else.
in the next
to be
looking
paid
life as if there were
and damned
Flaubert
as
acted
HISTORY
because
reparations"
an alternative,
if he
as if "true
a better
expected
exis
life. Without
the Augustinian
it, he adopted
admitting
doctrine
that the visible world is fallen and that men are contemptible,
while salvation awaits them in the City of God. Sand, for her part, loved
the present life a little bit more every day. "As for me, Iwant to be part of
the world until my last breath, not with the certainty or the requirement
a
that I will find elsewhere
good situation, but because my only joy is to
own
stay with my
people during the climb." This wisdom brings "happi
it is." This iswhat Sand also
of life, whatever
ness, that is, the acceptance
calls "the innocent pleasure of living for the sake of living."9
two different
is thus not between
ideals: both
Their disagreement
that
agree
literature
that
to
change
no
other
have
admit
can
Flaubert
score,
"I cannot
can
above
my
admit
only
"No matter
eyes!"
form
the
about
temperament
cannot
choose,
one
that
at
all
lies in the judgment
difference
On
aims
than
my
in
total
truth.
much
to be
freedom,
to me,
preach
turn
In her
further:
any
go
you
own."
their
Instead,
of narratives.
cannot
he
that
how
of
truthfulness
Sand
had
one
what
is.
even people with such liking for one another as Flaubert and Sand
could not easily follow the advice they received. Her advice to Flaubert
a bit futile. Nonetheless,
to
in committing
himself
seems, therefore,
And
write A Simple Heart,

see
Flaubert
'You will
told his correspondent:
instantly
influence."
your
this
By considering
differences
of
both
interpretation,
allows
Literature
literature.
and
transforms
have
direct
us
for
past,
we
can
see
a
writers
promoted
understand
to better
each of its readers
consequences
the
from
exchange
the
human
craft
for
and
despite
of
view
condition
this view would
inwardly. Accepting
the writer's
that,
similar
literary
criticism
but also for the way literature is taught today in schools. The analysis of
from some
works would no longer have as its goal illustrating concepts
linguist
or
other,
some
or
theoretician
of
other
and
literature,
to
thus
of language and discourse;

literary study
present texts as the deployment
we postulate
that
take as its aim to help us reach meaning?for
would
us
a
of
the
in
toward
turn,
human,
something
knowledge
guides
meaning,
not foreign to the world of school
important for everyone. This idea is
des Profes
In a report issued by the Association
teachers
themselves.
seurs de Lettres, we read, "The study of literature is basically the study
to himself and to the world and his relation with
of man, his relation
others."
and
national
most
works,
More
broader
literature,
important
whatever
the
exactly,
concentric
study
circles:
world
origin,
the
other
by human
stimulate
us
directs
literature
but
literature;
of all, is provided
their
of
writings
the ultimate
existence
reflection
on
of
toward
the
same
context,
itself. All
that.

broader
author,
and
the
the great
WHAT
IS LITERATURE
31
FOR?
If one agrees that the goal of literary studies is to help us better grasp
to better understand
of works and, through this meaning,
the meaning
the "struc
the factitious opposition
between
the world and ourselves,
as does the opposition
between
the
ture" and the "history" collapses,
that helps
"methods" of literary analysis. All new information
different
us better grasp this meaning
it comes from textual
iswelcome,
whether
or
commentary
from
of
knowledge
as
of
his
is not
sources,
We
goal
in
itself
here
in
but
only
to under
have
just
of the writer's
like the study of history,
stand that the study of structure,

art
context.
the
a means
to
sense,
with
reach
richer
meaning.
must
Literature
understood
be
its broadest
aware
ness of the historically moveable

of this concept. This require
boundaries
as dogma
we
not
worn-out
take
the
of the
that
postulate
implies
to which
the destiny of poetry has nothing
in
late romantics according
ment
common
the gray background
with
of "universal reporting" produced

the true value of literature does
that "literature is the only true life"
by ordinary
language. Recognizing
not mean
that we have to believe
or that "everything
in the world exists only for the purpose of making
a book," a dogma
three quarters of humanity
from
that would exclude
"true
life."
Texts
I would
as
known
can
"non-literary"
us much;
teach
and
for my
that French classes study the letter,

part
required
Tillion wrote in Fresnes prison
that
Germaine
unfortunately
to the German military
tribunal on January 3, 1943. It is a masterpiece
of humanness
and students would
learn a lot from it.10 "They are killing
literature" (to use the title of a recent polemical work) not by studying
have happily
not fiction,
"non-literary"
tions
of formalist,
This
is
texts
in school,
a much
obviously
setting
currently
have
immediate
for
our
results
but
by making
views
solipsist
more
ambitious
and
nihilist,
students.
in
terms
The
of
careers.
mere
works
literary
of literature.
than
program
changes
Since
that
the
it
what
illustra
we
are
would
object
requires
of literature
is the human condition

itself, the person who studies it and understands
not a specialist
in literary analysis, but an expert in be
it will become,
to the understanding
human.
better
introduction
of human
What
ing
behavior and passions
than an immersion
in the works of great writers
who have been working on that task for thousands of years? And, at the
same
for the many professions

that deal
time, what better preparation
the relations among people, with the behavior of individuals and
in this way and if we orient teaching
literature
groups? If we consider
resource
be more precious
these
what
could
for the future
lines,
along
student of law or political science, the future social worker or psychothera
it not be an exceptional
pist, the future historian or sociologist? Would
with
education
professors?
practice
of
to have Shakespeare,
And is it not clear
her
profession,
would
Sophocles,
Dostoyevsky,
that the future physician,
learn
more
from
such
and Proust as
for the actual
professors

than
32
NEW
from
exams
the mathematics
that
now
determine
LITERARY
her
HISTORY
future?
Literary
next to history
thus find its place within
studies would
the humanities,
to thought
and philosophy,
all disciplines
that bring progress
through
the
of
study
the
past,
made
past
as much
events
as much
of works
up
as by social
political
the life of individuals.
If we can agree on this aim for the teaching
no
longer
serve
simply
more
to create
as doctrines,
by
as by
shifts, by the life of peoples
of literature, which would
teachers
of
to
it is easy
literature,
the spirit of such teaching: we need to include the works of

the past in the great dialogue
the dialogue
that started
among humans,
at the dawn of time and in which each one of us, however
small our
"In
this
still
inexhaustible
communication,
part,
triumphant
participates.
over time and space, the universal
of literature is affirmed,"
significance
wrote Paul B?nichou.11 We, the adults, have the duty to pass on to future
this fragile legacy, these words that help us to live.
generations
articulate
de
Directeur
Centre
de
National
la
recherche
Recherche
honoraire
Scientifique?Paris
by John
Translated
Lyons
NOTES
and Tzvetan Todorov,
de la litt?rature (Paris: Pion,
eds., L'enseignement
Serge Doubrovsky
1971), 630.
Forme et signification
2
1965), II-III.
(Paris: J. Corti,
Jean Rousset,
cited
3
112 (hereafter
Books,
(London:
1989),
Penguin
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography
in text).
1
from
4
Richard
Rorty,
"Redemption
Telos 3, no. 3 (2001): 243-63.
a distinction
5
Todorov
makes
Egotism:
James
and Proust
as
Exercises,"
Spiritual
a "truth of
or
between
{v?rit? d'ad?quation)
adequation"
referential
truth, on one hand, and a "truth of unveiling"
scientific,
{v?rit? de d?voilement) or
to the same verification
shared insight. This type of truth "does not conform
procedures;
to the people who lived during
that
instead, a scene is true, in this sense, if it is persuasive
today those who seek to know about it. This truth, in other words,
epoch and if it enlightens
and not
is intersubjective
attain." Todorov,
This
referential.
'La m?moire
devant
is the truth
l'histoire," Terrain
that novelists
2
(September
and poets
1995),
(accessed July 5, 2006).?Trans.

revues.org/document2854.html
vol. 3 (Paris: Gallimard,
6
Immanuel
Kant, Oeuvres Philosophiques,
1985),
and George
Flaubert
7
Gustave
Sand, Correspondance
(Paris: Flammarion,
30.
8
Gustave
Flaubert,
Germaine
10
Flaubert,
terwhite
as Ravensbr?ck
11
B?nichou,
Paul
B?nichou
(Paris: Gallimard,
Correspondance
483.
486,
Correspondance,
Ravensbr?ck
Tillion,
(Paris:
(New York: Anchor

"Une communication
(Paris: Gallimard,
1995),
Seuil,
Books,
1988),
1981),
35-40.
to
attempt
http://terrain.
1073.
1981),
510
by Gerald
Sat
10, 255.
Translated
1975).
in?puisable,"
in M?langes
sur
l' uvre
228.

de Paul

Tzvetan Todorov - What Is Literature For

Transféré par

Informations du document

Description originale:

Titre original

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Tzvetan Todorov - What Is Literature For

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

What Is Literature for?

Author(s): Tzvetan Todorov and John Lyons

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

Both of my parents were professional

versions: the Arabian Nights, the tales of Grimm and

I now was reading in complete

New Literary History, 2007, 38: 13-32

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

that no one would

suspect to be the spokes

For my thesis I did a comparison

and I ran no risk of violating

the "Iron Curtain"

think at all exaggerated

love of literature without

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

I was a little discouraged,

hit it off right away. He

we could see each other again. The name of this professor

translation of the work

In the following years I gradually

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

ideas about man

is no accident that the boundary between

those of their Aztec

theExtreme. The letters of several writers enabled me, in Les Aventuriers de

like literary works, the status of fiction, because

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

inflict upon me;

life but not radically

does not replace

think of is that literature

us fulfill our human

to the Official Bulletin of the Ministry

and the specificity of texts, argumentation

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

that literary analysis

is the goal and which

to bring to life, for the students, turning points in European

of each of these approaches,

and into rhetoric and

literary works; none

of these subjects derives

the literary works

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

of the book as a whole

for its epoch

Kafka's place in the thought of his period.

of the text, and the way the work's

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

to create a "poetics," that is, the study

at the time) was

the university and the existing hierarchies.

study at the university

was viewed with suspicion.

the view of literature

This content downloaded from 151.100.101.138 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 09:33:47 AM

literary work is now portrayed as a closed object made of language, self

learn the dogma

to see literature as a discourse

to truth and values, but only

the way the literary work