A structural stylistic analysis of La princesse de Cleves 9783111342528, 9789027932631

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PROPRIETATIBUS

LITTERARUM

edenda curat

C . H . VAN

SCHOONEVELD

Indiana

University

Series Practica,

25

A STRUCTURAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF LA PRINCESSE DE CLEVES

by

SUSAN W. TIEFENBRUN Columbia University

1976 MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS

© Copyright 1976 Mouton & Co. B.V., Publishers, The Hague No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers

ISBN 90 279 3263 8

Printed in The Netherlands

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to express Her deepest grattitude to all those who contributed so generously their time and critical experience during the preparation of this study. A special expression of my appreciation is extended to Professor Michael Riffaterre not only for his inspiring teaching which oriented me toward a particularly stimulating and fruitful field of research, but for his kind encouragement and illuminating criticism which guided me throughout. His experience and erudition were invaluable to me. Thanks are also extended to the late Professor Nathan Edelman for the sincere interest he showed in my work, for his helpful advice which was always available, and for his scholarly integrity. I would like to thank those scholars with whom I conferred at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine for their opinions, especially Dr. Jonathan Tiefenbrun without whose encouragement this work would not have been possible. 1971

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements Introduction

5 9

PART ONE: TRANSFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS

I.

Cyclical Structure and Proximal Repetition 1. Periodic Functions and Cyclical Structure 2. Linear Chain Linkage 3. Polarization and Circularity in the Periodic Sentence 4. Cyclical Transformations and Verbal Repetition . . . 5. Variants of UNIQUENESS/SAMENESS and Adjectival Repetition

19 20 21 23 25 26

6. Variants of SPONTANEITY/CALCULATION and Ad-

verbial Repetition 7. Variants of EXTERIOR/INTERIOR and Word Paradigms 8 . Variants of CONSTANCY/INCONSTANCY

II. Cyclical Structure and Suprasegmental Repetition 1. Variants of UNIQUENESS/SAMENESS and Substantival Repetition 2. Variants of APPROACH/AVOIDANCE and Pronoun Repetition APPROACH/AVOIDANCE

and

31

and the

Role of the Adjective 'Même' 9. Cosinusoidal Cycles: Participial Repetition, Anaphora, and Polysyndeton 10. Phrasal Repetition 11. Coupling and Polarity

3 . Variants of Repetition

29

33 34 38 39

45 47

Verbal

4. Cosinusoidal Cycles and the Repetition of Interrogatives

48

59

8

CONTENTS

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Structural Exchanges and Repetition of Adjectives . . Structural Exchanges and Repetition of Imperatives . Structural Exchanges and Sentence Repetition . . . Phrasal Repetition Homologs Analytical Dialectics

51 53 54 55 58 60

PART TWO: SEQUENTIAL ANALYSIS

Introduction

71

III. International Affairs

74

IV. Court Affairs

80

V. Peripheral Episodes 1. Episode No. 1 : Historical Account of Marie de Lorraine . 2. Episode No. 2: Historical Account of Madame de Valentinois 3. Episode No. 3: Story about Sancerre, Mme. de Tournon and Estouteville 4. Episode No. 4: Historical Account of Queen Elizabeth . 5. Episode No. 5: Historical Account of Ann Boleyn . . . 6. Episode No. 6: The Lost Letter 7. Episode No. 7: Story about the Vidame de Chartres . .

96 102 105 108 109

VI. Clèves-Nemours-Clèves Central Conflict

117

Conclusion

121

Appendix

127

Bibliography

177

Index

183

87 90

INTRODUCTION

La Princesse de Oèves has the distinction of being one of the texts most frequently cited for stylistic insignificance.1 Daniel Mornet denies the existence of any style at all in this novel.2 As if that were not enough to challenge the relevancy of this subject, Paul Delbouille in "Réflexions sur l'état présent de la stylistique littéraire" 3 questions the very efficacy of structural stylistics and criticizes the broadly accepted phenomenon of contrasts within context presented by Michael Riffaterre. 4 Mr. Delbouille insists that contrast as a criterion for stylistic activity could easily be disproved by an analysis of none other than La Princesse de Oèves whose "aspect négatif du style" and abstract vocabulary would invariably escape the analyst's eye. And yet, my contention is that abstract vocabulary is the first identifiable, stylistically-active stimulus, and it is manifest accordingly in the very first word of the novel ("La Magnificence").5 With equally questionable reasoning Mr. Delbouille suggests that the stylistician, intent upon reconstructing the synchronic effects of a text on the reader, would be at a loss for works written before the twentieth century, and he cites La Princesse de Oèves as a case in point. 6 Far from being at a loss, the stylistician of a seventeenth-century text has at his disposal numerous references besides textual annotations to aid him in the reconstruction of effects. 7 And from among the critical annotations available, he should distinguish those which are superfluous from those which signal any stylistic activity within the text. In most cases I found the notes in various editions of La Princesse de Oèves helpful as background material but invariably unnecessary to the structural stylistic analysis of the novel. Sometimes the notes reflected ambiguities in the text, but these were mainly forced, functional for suspense, temporary and inevitably relieved by textual recalls or additional information provided by the author. 8 Sceptics uncertain about the potentials of structural stylistics need only consider the effectiveness of Tzvetan Todorov's study of Les Liaisons Dangereuses9 or Roland Barthes' structural analysis of Balzac's short novel, Sarrasine.10 Despite Barthes' insistence on the value of textual analysis, 11 there have been relatively few attempts with the novel because of the problems which le récit and longer prose forms present to the stylistician. 12 The

10

INTRODUCTION

terrain for scholarship in this area, then, is rich but scarcely developed, and La Princesse de Cleves seems perfectly suited to a methodical, progressive analysis. 13 The critical work already accomplished for this particular novel deals primarily with historical, biographical, genetic, and thematic phenomena. There is a striking absence of stylistic orientation. As surprising as it may seem, up until recently 14 literary critics have consistently neglected the litterarite of La Princesse de Cleves, refusing to ask how the novel comes to mean or how its effectiveness is transmitted to the reader. The aim of this study is to answer those very questions, and more specifically to explain how repetition, one of the most frequently criticized stylistic devices, functions effectively as a basic tool with which the global structure of La Princesse de Cleves takes shape and becomes perceptible to the reader. By repetition I refer not only to its accepted definition, that is the reiteration of either a stylistic device or a semantic structure, but to the concept of linguistic redundance. 1 5 According to this principle, different words and expressions can replace each other without drastically changing the sense of the syntagm. We can extend this definition to include the recurrence of equivalent or interchangeable forms. Stated in structural terms, the 'models' of a basic relationship are interchangeable. These models, called variants, are structured along a vertical axis commonly referred to as a paradigm. The reader, who deduces structural similarities in the text in the form of variants, reacts to any component that appears inappropriate to the pattern. His prediction, or more exactly, his anticipation is disappointed; he senses a clash within the context of a code, 1 6 an anomaly, a break in a pattern. Anomalies invariably evoke reader reactions, and without repetition neither a pattern nor an anomaly could be possible. Repetition should be understood, then, in its extended sense; parallelisms, correspondences, homologs, and analogies are all repetitions because they are, generally, relationships of similarity or equivalence. The essential problem for the stylistician is to determine when and if a repetition is perceived by the reader. When a word, phrase or sentence is repeated in the text, the critical factor determining its perceptibility is the distance between the segments. If the repetition is suprasegmental, that is beyond the sentence, paragraph or volume, and if there is a considerable time lapse between readings, it is quite possible that the reader may miss the repetition at least on the first reading. The perception of a parallelism or an analogy, both of which are proportional repetitions, involves more than distance and time factors. In a numerical analogy, for example, the mathematician must perceive a proportion between two elements, and then a similarity in the relationship of two other elements. In the same manner the reader of a literary text perceives a series of similarities. If he can not for some reason, be it textual or cognitive, identify a sufficient number of equivalences within the elements of the analogy, the relationship may remain undetected.

INTRODUCTION

11

M E T H O D O L O G Y AND O R G A N I Z A T I O N

The first half of this study is a paradigmatic analysis based on progressive, sentence by sentence, microstylistics. 17 The purpose throughout is to abstract from the many observable variants a limited number of basic invariants in the novel. 'Structure' is considered as a system of interrelated elements undergoing transformation and producing similar models or variants. Since structure is an abstraction, the reader observes it only in the form of one of the many variants. This process of abstraction can take place early in the stylistic analysis as a legitimate, creative hypothesis or during the second stage of research, that is, the procedure of crosscorrelation. In some cases, the analyst may have a hypothesis in mind even before the stylistic analysis is performed as a result of a careful preliminary reading of the text. In this investigation which was initially totally descriptive, the hypothesis is negligible. Since the aim is to observe objectively what actually functions within the text, how it is structured, and what tools are used to create meaning, any predisposed inclination was rigorously avoided. Objectivity is the key to the success of a descriptive study. Moreover, since the focal point of the analysis is consistently the stimulus within the text, it is virtually impossible to fall into the trap of subjective distortion, commonly described as "finding what one wants to find". The stylistician observes, analyzes, describes, and classifies according to a systematized vocabulary found in any number of rhetorical manuals. 1 8 With the message encoded in the text, the analyst's main concern is to slow down the decoding process. Accordingly, each sentence of the text was transposed on a special data-processing card. 1 9 The typing of each sentence in this manner is particularly advantageous as it forces the reader's attention on each word of the text. The specimen to be analyzed is, therefore, temporarily isolated from the preceding and following sentences which constitute its context. It is precisely this isolation which makes possible the recurrent, satisfying discovery experiences 20 involving an IMPLICIT/EXPLICIT relationship between sentences. Once the specimen was recorded, the reader immediately launched into a descriptive stylistic analysis for which the principle of 'stylistic activity' was absolutely essential. 21 Any stimulus, stylistic or semantic, which imposed itself on the reader's perception, was considered significant. To control for the inevitability of distraction, lack of attention, and general background differentials, the superreader technique was used. 2 2 Accordingly, many subjective value judgments on specific passages of La Princesse de Qeves were collected, and disregarding the content of these impressions, they were considered exclusively as signals of a stimulus encoded within the text. It is the task of the stylistician to describe the nature of the stimulus and thereby reveal the linguistic cause for the reader's reaction. To concentrate on the psychological effect rather than the cause

12

INTRODUCTION

would have reduced the analysis to subjective impressionism.23 The linguistic effect of the stimulus was considered only in relation to its context. Given the principle of polyvalence of stylistic devices, it would have been impossible to generalize the nature of effects for each stylistic device. 24 An effect can result from a contrast or interference in the surrounding stylistic context in which case there is usually a rhetorical figure present. An effect can also occur when there is a mild, sudden shock created by a semantic element in a sequence. In such a case it might be a monosemic or polysemic stimulus that causes the reader to take notice of this written symbol. This analysis, then, consists of both stylistic and semantic structures. 25 Upon the completion of the analysis, approximately one hundred parameters were identified. After each card was key punched to facilitate sorting, 26 it was possible to determine mathematically the structural frequency and distribution for La Princesse de Cléves. Althóugh the value of statistical stylistics is undeniable, researchers for whom such figures are intended should be aware of their limitations. Statistics are nothing more than concrete signs which point the researcher in a certain direction at the start of his analytical quest. It is the analyst who must determine how the signs work to create an effect on the reader. Moreover, the results of this study reflect only those structures which are active, that is which produce an effect on the reader, and their frequency count is dependent not simply on their appearance in the text but on their efficacy. A total recount of structures without regard to the reader's reaction would constitute a 'grammar', not a stylistic study. Frequency counts were obtained first by dividing the novel in half for convenience, then by subdividing into twelve approximately equal sections for a total of twenty-four samples. (See Tables 1-4 for Volumes I-II and Tables 5-8 for Volumes III-IV on pp. 131-140). The examples for each structure were isolated, the frequency of each was calculated, and these figures were then transposed into percentages. 27 For the reader's convenience the results are illustrated in a conventional bar-graph manner such that the structural frequency and distribution in all four volumes can be seen at a glance (see Figures 1-13, pp. 141-153).28 The microstylistic analysis performed on the 1792 sentences of La Princesse de Cléves is available on McBee dataprocessing cards fully cross-correlated for further investigative research. The second stage of research involved crosscorrelation in which the analyst tried to determine how the elements of the system interrelate, enter into combination, and undergo permutations and transformations to produce the whole structure which is the work of fiction. The data collected could have been adapted to IBM cards and computerized to facilitate that monumental task of crosscorrelation which is admittedly limited if executed by the human mind. The computer could have uncovered systems inter-

INTRODUCTION

13

woven so intricately into the fabric of the text that they escape the human eye. One could argue, then, that since these infrastructures are imperceptible to the reader, they are stylistically insignificant. 29 Despite limitations with crosscorrelation, I did discover that within those ninety-five isolated parameters, many were interdependent and, in fact, related by binary opposition. 30 Upon closer examination I realized that this binarism was the basis of a whole system of polarized variants in perpetual, dialectical fluctuation and undergoing transformations on many linguistic levels of the text. 3 1 From all variants, it was possible to deduce that the key to the novel's arrangement is found in the multiple transformations of a cyclical structure. The most common sign of cyclical structure is repetition, for a cycle by definition is perceived as a recurrence, a completion of one round of events that recur regularly and in the same sequence; in short, it is an alternating movement between two poles. It is no coincidence, then, that the circle, a transformation of the cyclical structure, can be uncovered on many levels of the text. The periodic sentence, for example, describes a series of enclosures or concentric circles. On the plot level interrelated story threads trace a circular pattern so regular that it is possible to illustrate graphically by a series of concentric circles the integration of events in La Princesse de Qéves (see series of Figures I, II and III for Part II, pp. 154-168). 32 Graphing techniques are used primarily for illustrative purposes so that the reader can see easily how the novel is structured, the manner and degree to which it is integrated, and the manifestation of a cyclical structure in the arrangement of events. The terms 'cycle' and 'circle' should be understood as a symbolic short-hand used to describe patterns occurring within the text. Whether these concepts were a reality to the seventeenth-century readers, or whether there was any conscious intent on the part of Mme. de Lafayette to introduce them as a reality, is of no consequence to this study. In the first half of the study, then, a transformational analysis is conducted in order to explain how La Princesse de Qéves is structured according to a limited number of binary oppositions whose polarization is perpetuated by repetition. The second half of the study constitutes a syntagmatic sequential analysis in which long-range patterns are traced on levels beyond the sentence. For this approach, the focal point of attention is primarily on the arrangement of segments and the disclosure of isomorphic structures. 33 What initially seems to be a linear, progressive development of a story line is actually a transformation of several separate yet integrated sequences that interrelate and even superimpose each other so tightly that for almost three hundred years of literary criticism only a handful of readers felt it compelling to investigate that structural puzzle which is the system underlying La Princesse de Qéves. 34 Both perspectives, the transformational and sequential, the microscopic and telescopic, confirm each other,

14

INTRODUCTION

and both are necessary for an effective structural analysis. If the stylistician has abstracted the most basic relationship from all the visible variants, he should be able to identify that configuration on many levels of the text. 35

NOTES 1

Voltaire probably ranks first as the author whose works are considered least suitable for stylistic analysis! See Antoine Albalat, La Formation du style par l'assimilation des auteurs (Paris: A. Colin, 1956), 295: "(Voltaire) n'a pas de procédés." 1 Daniel Momet, Histoire de la littérature française (Paris: Larousse, n.d.), 95: "Et le pathétique naît, avec une forte simplicité, non des effets du style, mais du tragique des situations." s Cahiers d'Analyse Textuelle, VI (1964), 7-22. 4 Michael Riffaterre, "Critères pour l'analyse du style", Essais de stylistique structurale (Paris: Flammarion, 1971), 57-58. 5 Initial position frequently attracts reader attention. I further analyzed the relation of "abstract vocabulary" to an equally important but opposite tendency toward concretization and found that each of these were components of a basic cyclical structure in the novel (see permutations of the EXTERIOR/INTERIOR invariant in Chapter I, pp. 31-33). ABSTRACTION/CONCRETIZATION is just one of the many valiants on a highly developed paradigm, the most frequently occurring of which is APPROACH/ AVOIDANCE. 6 Delbouille, p. 15: "M. Riffaterre peut-il croire que les gloses pourtant nombreuses et les notes des éditions pourtant multiples de livres aussi anciens que La Princesse de Clèves ou Adolphe, par exemple, vont suffire à fonder une analyse stylistique de ses romans?" 7 e.g. Ferdinand Brunot, Histoire de la langue française des origines à 1900, III (Paris: Armand Colin, 1930); R.L. Wagner and J. Pinchon, Grammaire du français classique et moderne (Paris: Hachette, 1962); A. Haase, Syntaxe française du XVIle siècle (Paris: Delagrave, 1969). Critical works by Vaugelas and Bouhours reconstruct the state of language for the seventeenth century and, therefore, serve as an index for clichés and shocking deviations from the 'bienséances'. Dictionaries for the seventeenth century include Dictionnaire de l'académie (1694); Gaston Cayrou, Le Français classique; and J. Dubois and R. Lagane, Dictionnaire de la langue française. For La Princesse de Clèves in particular there is a wealth of material from contemporary readers such as Valincour, Fontenelle, Madame de Sévigné, and Bussy-Rabutin who reacted publicly to the text and created what has been referred to as "La Querelle de la Princesse de Clèves" (see our notes in Chapter I p. 41). In the diachronic interest of a prolongation of effects, numerous critics, translators, personal friends, and students of French have been helpful in providing signals for stylistic and semantic stimuli present in the text. 8 There are several examples of ambiguity due to the use of two or more pronouns in a sentence or paragraph, the antecedents of which are not clearly indicated. See Frequency and Distribution Fig. No. 6 for ambivalency ( R „ ) , p. 146 9 Tzvetan Todorov, Littérature et signification (Paris: Larousse, 1967), 13-89. 10 Roland Barthes, S/Z (Paris: Seuil, 1970). " Barthes, p. 18: "D'où l'idée, et pour ainsi dire la nécessité, d'une analyse progressive portant sur un texte unique". " See Communications, VIII (1966), a whole number devoted to structural analysis of 'Le récit'. Cf. Vladimir Propp, Morphologie du conte, "Poétique" (Paris: Seuil, 1970).

INTRODUCTION 15

15

"Progressive" analysis refers to the kind of sequential procedure which respects the order of the text. Stylistic and semantic phenomena that affect the reader as he reads are identified and described. Retroactive effects in a second or third reading of the text are also considered. 14 See Claudette Sarlet, "Le Temps dans la Princesse de Clèves", Marche Romane, IX (1959), 51-59; Claudette Sarlet, "La Description des personnages dans La Princesse de Clèves", XVIle Siècle, XLIV (1959), 186-200; Marie-Jeanne Durry, "Le Monologue intérieur dans la Princesse de Clèves", La Littérature narrative d'imagination (Paris, 1961), 87-96; Claudette Sarlet, "Style Indirect Libre et point de vue dans La Princesse de Clèves", Cahiers d'Analyse Textuelle, VI (1964), 70-80; Gérard Genette, "Vraisemblance et motivation", Communications, XI (1968), 5-22; Sylvère Lotringer, "La Structuration romanesque", Critique, 277 (1970), 498-519. ls J. Dubois et al., Rhétorique générale (Paris: Larousse, 1970), 38: "On sait qu'à tous ses niveaux, le langage est redondant, c'est-à-dire, se répète". Cf. Roman Jakobson, Essais de linguistique générale (Paris: Minuit, 1963), 89. " A code can best be described in terms of an idiolect comprised of words linguistically Iinkèd by a common key. The term is frequently employed in the context of imagery; we might speak of a 'water code' or a code of 'evasion' for exemple. M. Riffaterre introduced a definition of code in his article entitled "Describing Poetic Structures", Yale French Studies, XXXVI-XXXVII (1966), 239: "Semantic permanence is to be observed among the variants of one structure; but a verbal obsession may serve several structures. Let us give the name code to the lexical components that actualize a variant of a structure." 17 Part I of the study is referred to as "Transformational Analysis" since it deals with structure as an interrelated system of variants in a state of transformation. " See Du Marsais, Des Tropes ou des différens sens, 3rd ed. (Paris: Prault, n.d.) for seventeenth-century rhetoric. Also Pierre Fontanier, Les Figures du discours (Paris: Flammarion, 1968); J. Dubois et al., Rhétorique générale (Paris: Larousse, 1970). " McBee data processing note card. See sample on p. 130. 20 See details on this discovery experience in Chapter II, pp. 61-63. 21 See M. Riffaterre, "Criteria for Style Analysis", Word, XV (1959), 17. The stylistic context is a linguistic pattern suddenly broken by an element which was unpredictable, and the contrast resulting from this interference is the stylistic stimulus ... In other words, the stylistic contrasts, like the other useful oppositions in language, create a structure." See also the discussion of convergence as a criterion for stylistic significance, p. 173. " See M. Riffaterre, "Criteria for Style Analysis", 165-167. 53 See M. Riffaterre, "Problèmes d'analyse du style littéraire", Essais de stylistique structurale, 95-112. 14 Dubois, Rhétorique générale, 147: "Nous le (effet) définissons comme un état affectif suscité chez le récepteur par un message particulier et dont la qualité spécifique varie en fonction d'un certain nombre de paramètres. Parmi ceux-ci une grande place doit être ménagée au destinataire lui-même ... l'effet dépend à la fois des stimuli (les métaboles) et du récepteur (le lecteur, l'auditeur)." " A semantic structure is a relationship existing between two terms called 'semes', as for example "big:little". The terms relate by disjunction (opposition) and by conjunction (both are a measure of quantity). For a more detailed discussion see A.J. Greimas, Sémantique structurale (Paris: Larousse, 1966), 22-25. " Each perforation on the card corresponds to a designated stylistic or semantic structure present in the sentence. With the aid of a sorter, it was possible to isolate rapidly all the examples of any one structure and count them.

16 27

INTRODUCTION

It can easily be seen, for example, that within the first eight pages of Volume I parallelism occurs in 10 percent of the sentences (see No. 29, Division 1 on Table 1, p. 132), or that the device of repetition occurs in 47 percent of the sentences within the first eleven pages of Volume II (see No. L a , Division 7 on Table 3, p. 134). ™ The bargraph permits easy comparative, quantitative analysis. The researcher can see rapidly that hyperbole, for example (see Fig. 3, Number 18, p. 143), is an unusually high-frequency device present in as many as 40 percent of the sentences in the second division of Volume I, and it is rather evenly distributed throughout the novel except for a small dip at the start of Volume III in which it occurs in only 15 percent of the sentences. Irony, on the other hand (see Fig: 3, No. 21, p. 143), is unevenly distributed and reaches its peak frequency at the end of Volume 1(32 percent). " I do not reject computer potentials, and such a study is currently in progress supported by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. The system described above is readily applicable to computer analysis; however, a programmer and a computer with sufficient disc storage are necessary to accommodate the complexity of La Princesse de Clèves and its ninety-five parameters. 30 Variants of constancy such as marital fidelity, strength of will, emotional restraint, ability to keep secrets, etc., are related to their opposite counterparts: marital duplicity, emotional weakness, indiscretion. This coupling is manifested stylistically as, for example, in the use of hyperbole and litotes or long, analytical passages in contrast to brief sentences denoting moments of sudden insight. 31 In a recent article in Critique ("La Structuration romanesque", 277 [1970], 498-519) Sylvère Lotringer analyzed La Princesse de Clèves and found that polarization had a primary function in the structuring of the novel. Any number of structuralists - Roman Jakobson in structural linguistics, Claude Lévi-Strauss in structural anthropology, A.J. Greimas in structural semantics - have pointed out that binarism is the constant elemental building block of any complex system. 32 The union of the two ultimate points on each sequence is a mathematical justification for the illustration of the structure as circular. Mathematicians may want to quibble that the first and last events of any sequence only implicitly pass through the same point. I am fully aware of the limitations of applying 'mathematical' concepts to the literary domain and am willing to concede that these concepts are quasi-mathematical. They are used only in so far as they help locate and illustrate infrastructures. I have no pretentions of 'proving' anything mathematically. 33 Roland Barthes, "Drame, Poème, Roman", Théorie d'ensemble (Paris: Seuil, 1968), 26: "... nous disposons, devant la narration, de deux embryons d'analyse: l'une fonctionnelle, ou paradigmatique, qui tente de dégager dans l'oeuvre des éléments noués entre eux par-dessus le pas-à-pas des mots, l'autre séquentielle, ou syntagmatique, qui veut retrouver la route - les routes suivies par les mots de la première à la dernière ligne du texte." 34 Sylvère Lotringer's recent article in Critique cited earlier deals specifically with the structuring of La Princesse de Clèves. Douglas Hall's doctoral dissertation done at the University of Maryland in 1968 and entitled "A Structural Analysis of the Major Fictional Works of Madame de Lafayette" treats all the major novels and novellas without regard to stylistic structures. Dr. Hall's notion of 'structure' is limited to 'compositional arrangement' and his thesis is essentially a comparison of the four major works of Madame de Lafayette. In our opinion the most interesting and helpful study dealing specifically with the structuring of La Princesse de Clèves is Jean Rousset's chapter in Forme et signification (Paris; 1962). 35 Claude Lévi-Strauss, L'Anthropologie structurale, cited in Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme (Paris: Seuil, 1968), 229: "Enfin le modèle doit être construit de telle façon que son fonctionnement puisse rendre compte de tous les faits observés."

PART ONE

TRANSFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS

Etre classique, c'est se répéter. Albert Camus

I. CYCLICAL STRUCTURE AND PROXIMAL REPETITION1

Although repetition is considered an effective rhetorical figure, its use is frequently cautioned and on occasion criticized.2 Critics of La Princesse de Qèves as early as 1678 and even Madame de Lafayette herself,3 were quick to note "un petit nombre de légers défauts", due to the noticeable repetition of abstract words, hyperbolic clichés, and cumbersome "qui" and "que" clauses. Without seeing a relation between repetition and periodicity, these readers also criticized the insertion of anecdotal episodes4 and documented historical details.5 Episodic interruptions and historical framing, which critics felt did nothing more than slow down the main-line intrigue, had to be brief and well-integrated. Although this esthetic has been maintained by some even into the twentieth century, there are those like Gustave Lanson,6 Jean Rousset, Jean Fabre, and Albert Camus who do not defend but admire La Princesse de Qèves for its "classical art of repetition", 7 "enrichments", 8 "music", and "counterpoint". 9 In the historical development of literary criticism on La Princesse de Qèves, familiar turns of phrase such as "ce je ne sais quoi du style sublime", the harmony, the rhythm, "le va-et-vient", 10 "une certaine alternance", 11 and "le huis clos" recur alongside some unflattering remarks on style which remain for the most part unexplained. It is generally accepted that La Princesse de Qèves is the masterpiece among classical novels, an exemplary specimen of high style, an "ineffable mystery" of beauty despite its negligent repetitions and interruptive digressions. This study proposes that it is not in spite of but because of periodic repetition and interruption that the basic cyclical structure of the novel, that ineffable mystery, is achieved. The key is periodic function. There is no need to explain 'harmony' in the novel by a "je ne sais quoi" when even a cursory investigation of periodic functions would inevitably lead to the word 'harmonics'. Since repetition with regularity is the essential component of periodic functions, it follows that stylistic repetition and digressive interruptions are elements of the cyclical structure. Repetition is a multifaceted tool by which periodicity is built on many levels into La Princesse de Qèves.

20

CYCLICAL STRUCTURE AND PROXIMAL REPETITION

1. Periodic Functions and Cyclical Structure A periodic function is a mathematical expression or relationship which repeats its values at regular intervals.12 The sine, cosine and tangent functions whose graphs illustrate the property of periodicity (see Figs. 1 and 2 p. 129) are useful in the study of certain patterns of everyday life such as the vibrations of a violin string or the bouncy bus ride, the recurrence of the moon and tides, the cycle of the seasons, the life-death cycle, and in fact any dialectic which recurs with regularity. For the purposes of this study, only sinusoidal and cosinusoidal functions will be considered. Each of these functions has certain properties: amplitude, or its maximum ordinate; frequency, or the number of cycles per time; and period, or the interval between successive repetitions. But these functions, usually described as waves or signals, rarely occur in the pure form for two or more waves may be imperceptibly superimposed on each other having undergone a process known as Fourier expansion (see Fig. 3 p. 129).13 The components of this complex wave are called the harmonics. The effect of the wave may be prolonged or reinforced by resonance when another alternating wave of precisely the same period acts upon it, as for example in an echo. Resonance occurs when a child moves a heavy swing by pushing always at the moment when the push has the greatest effect. Similarly, a moral lesson can be reinforced by the insertion of an anecdotal episode like the Mme. de Tournon story just at the moment of Mme. de Cleves' wavering doubts. These principles of periodic functions and their potential effects are applicable to a structural stylistic analysis whose primary aim is the disclosure of patterns within the novel. Although the application of these mathematical principles in sciences such as chemistry, physics, engineering, and systems analysis has been productive, there are limitations to its potential in the literary domain. That limitation is primarily quantification. It is relatively easy to measure the input and output of an electrical system when the analyst has his data in accurate numbers. The stylistician's quantification is somewhat different for he measures what is stylistically active in the text, being concerned more with trends than punctilious counts. If we restrict this analysis to qualitative description based on the quantified frequency and distribution of structures found in Figs. 1-13 (pp. 141-153) we should be able to identify basic, longrange patterns woven intricately into the fabric of the text. Before we can determine these patterns, we should first investigate the elemental constituent units of the system. Various forms of repetition will be examined for their functioning and effects. Once the system is reduced to its structural elements, we can see how they interrelate by opposition and correlation to produce resemblances or homologs which strike the reader's attention as a repetition. Basic structural relationships recur by a process of transformation and permutation producing correspondences or isomor-

CYCLICAL STRUCTURE AND PROXIMAL REPETITION

21

phisms in the novel. The primary aim of this study is to reveal isomorphic structures in La Princesse de Clèves. During the course of the analysis, repetitions occurring at varying intervals either in the sentence, within or beyond the paragraph were noted. The frequency and distribution of repetition were then calculated in percentages (see Table 3, L2, p. 134 and Table 7, L2, p. 139). Crosscorrelations for analogous structures such as anaphora and polysyndeton were also done (see Nos. 3 and 10 on Table 1, p. 131 and Table 5, p. 136). These results corroborated quantitatively the impression that repetition as both a stylistic device and effect occurs more frequently than most structures. By plotting frequency and distribution in a bargraph manner, it is possible to determine whether a structure is periodic. It is particularly striking that the stylistic device of repetition, the essential factor in periodicity, is itself a periodic function and recurs with regularity at certain intervals (see Fig. 4, p. 129). The results of the transformational analysis are reported in the first two chapters of this study which investigate different kinds of repetitions and their patterns. The first chapter will treat proximal repetitions present on the word level within the sentence itself, and their effects on the reader. These repetitions are the tools with which variants of the cyclical structure take shape and reach the reader's perception. Although a cyclical configuration and its transformations can be uncovered within the limitations of the sentence, the full-blown pattern can not really take shape until long-range repetitions within and beyond the paragraph at levels higher than the word are examined in Chapter II. 2. Linear Chain Linkage The repetition of the words "qui" and "que", often found in long sentences separated by semicolons, elicited strong, negative reader response. 14 The length of the sentences did not shock the seventeenth-century readers for they were accustomed to extensive, carefully ordered sentences resembling the Latin periods. What did strike their attention is the resultant complexity and apparent lack of order: Je fus soutenue ensuite par le plaisir de dissimuler avec vous, comme vous dissimuliez avec moi: néanmoins, je me faisois une si grande violence pour vous dire et pour vous écrire que je vous aimois, que vous vîtes plus tôt que je n'avois eu dessein de vous le laisser voir, que mes sentiments étoient changés (p. 82). 1 5 This long, highly punctuated series of causes and effects, written by Mme. de Thémines to the Vidame de Chartres in an unidentified letter which Mme. de Clèves falsely assumes is written to Nemours, echoes the general

22

CYCLICAL STRUCTURE AND PROXIMAL REPETITION

confusion of the circumstances as well as the intricacy of the trap Mme. de Thémines is setting for the Vidame. And yet, by a procedure of parallel positioning or mirroring, one senses an order behind this complexity. 16 The repetition of the verb "dissimuler" and the parallel constructions "dissimuler avec vous, comme vous dissimuliez avec moi", underline the reciprocity of the trap. 1 7 The elongation of the cause/effect clause by the intervening symmetrical phrases "pour vous dire et pour vous écrire" and the subsequent amplifying clauses creates a suspense and tension partially relieved in the vague object "le". The suspense is over when the exact meaning of the object is rendered explicit in the final elongation "que mes sentiments étoient changés", set up in parallel position to "que je vous aimois", thereby creating a balanced antithesis. What appears on the surface as complex disorder is actually a carefully ordered arrangement of stylistic structures converging toward an effect of balance. This sentence is also an illustration of a semantic structure which reappears in different forms throughout the novel: dissimulation. I8 There is dissimulation between man and wife, dissimulation between two lovers, dissimulation for ambition on a grand scale within the Court, and self-deception. The frequency of the word "que" in the sentence below translates Mme. de Clèves' manipulations in the fabrication of a lie to herself and to her mother: ... mais le soir, lorsqu'elle la montra à sa mère, elle lui dit qu'elie n'avoit pas dessein de s'en servir; que le maréchal de Saint-André prenoit tant de soin de faire voir qu'il étoit attaché à elle, qu'e lie ne doutoit point qu'il ne voulût aussi faire croire qu'elle auroit part au divertissement qu'il devoit donner au roi, et que, sous prétexte de faire l'honneur de chez lui, il lui rendroit des soins dont peut-être elle seroit embarrassée (p. 39). Just a glance at the context of this sentence reveals Mme. de Clèves' instinctual desire to satisfy Nemours by avoiding Saint-André's party, but to do so she must justify her immediate reaction by "une raison de sévérité". It is this secondary rationalization which she relates to her mother as if to an alter-ego. The major source of the repetitious "que" stems from the indirect discourse, and these are interrupted by the familiar cause/effect clause "tant de soin de faire voir... que". Her fear of the Court's reaction and the inevitable gossip that is to ensue is transmitted by the repetition of the homologous structures "faire voir" and "faire croire". The undercurrent of tension sustained by the unusual length of this sequence, and the proximal alternations of "il" and "elle" anticipate the pattern of the chain series that emerges from within court gossip. Looking more closely at the impression of interwoven relationships within the Court, we see taking shape on all levels and within the sentence a chainlike pattern of links. The most obvious model is the hierarchical rank

CYCLICAL STRUCTURE AND PROXIMAL REPETITION

2 3

system ordered on a mobile vertical axis with ambition and gallantry as the two dynamic forces. The vertical dynamism of the chain is often evoked by the repetition of positional prepositions: "Le dépit qu'elle en eut lui fit penser à trouver un parti pour sa fille, qui la mît au-dessus de ceux qui se croyaient au-dessus d'elle" (p. 18). When a well-chosen love affair attracts court attention, gossip is instantaneously set in motion: the same story is told and retold in chain series from different points of view to an everincreasing circle of acquaintances. 19 The gossip takes the shape of a linear chain reaction, as one person tells the story to another who in turn relates it to a third. The repetition of the words "qui" and "que" in such a case could underline the indirect nature in which the knowledge is being transmitted: Il me conta qu'un moment après que j'étois sorti de sa chambre, Estouteville, qui est son ami intime, mais qui ne savoit pourtant rien de son amour pour madame de Tournon, l'étoit venu voir; que, d'abord qu'il avoit été assis, il avoit commencé à pleurer, et qu'il avoit dit qu'A lui demandoit pardon de lui avoir caché ce A 3. o V5 OX ~»"K .2o K 2^ «c . o2 5" ftOc G aO > n rt • c ? S « -h o o -S o -o Sr-fi a 3 c -I .§.8 & ft o at .tS E 3 --S & > 3 o »» g •o g B aed art P3 o rt oo ou *0a u .3 u i .¿,3 t t c C

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