Between Representation and Imagination: The Promotion of Dijon in Gaspard de la Nuit

Abstract

Louis (Aloysius) Bertrand’s Gaspard de la Nuit: Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot, a collection of fantaisies in prose published posthumously in 1842, opens with an enigmatic first preface. In what Gérard Genette called a ‘préface auctoriale dénégative’ — an established literary cliché where the author assumes the role of publisher — Louis Bertrand encounters the mysterious fictive author of the Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt et de Callot, M. Gaspard de la Nuit. This encounter takes place in the familiar environment the Jardin de l’Arquebuse, the public gardens of Dijon, Bertrand’s own city. Yet Dijon virtually disappears from the rest of the collection. The aim of this article is to show that Bertrand’s use of Dijon at the beginning of the collection — often interpreted as a loving tribute to his city — was, instead, a clever exploitation of contemporary fascination with the provinces and their couleur locale. I argue that the preface shares some of the main features of the récit de voyage, especially its flexible approach to referentiality, and show how it can be read, more specifically, as a sort of Voyage pittoresque in Dijon, reflecting the contemporary cultural phenomenon of the Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’Ancienne France. By cleverly blending these literary fashions of his time and by applying them to his own city at the beginning of his collection, Bertrand was able to turn his provincialism into a point of strength.