Circles of Learning: Narratology and the Eighteenth-Century French Novel by Jenny Mander (review)

Abstract

Frederick in the late I750S. The focal point of interest remains, however, the attractive and intriguingfigure of Louise-Dorothee herself, whose culture, intelligence , astonishingly wide range of interests, and warm humanity shine out from almosteverypage. The editionbenefitsconsiderablyfroma substantialandinformativeintroduction, which not only provides a well-documented historicaland bibliographicalcontext but also contains useful sections on the literary and philosophical aspects of the letters,including a section on style and language, sheddingfreshlight on the whole question offrancophonie in this period. Technical presentation is excellent, with full bibliographical,historical, and critical annotation set out clearly after each letter. There are two appendices containing nine supplementarylettersto and from third parties,togetherwith a bibliographyand fullindex. UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD DAVID WILLIAMS CirclesofLearning: JVarratology andtheEighteenth-Century French Novel. ByJENNYMANDER. (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 366) Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation. I999. viii + 232 pp. One of the constant problems with theory is itsjuxtaposition with texts. A theory giving a convincing account of one categoryof texts may be less convincing applied to another category, andJenny Mander's contention is that Genettian narratology is not as appropriate as has been supposed when used as a tool of analysis of eighteenth-century first-personnarrative. In a substantialinitial study of Genette and his followers,Mander arguesthat he failsto escape from an assumption,rooted in twentieth-century manners of reading, that texts are fundamentally autobiographical . Applied to Marivaux and his contemporaries, this decrees that their homodiegetic narrativesshouldbe seen as thepersonalstatementsof theirsupposed narrators, characterized by all the limitations of subjectivitywith which modern readersarefamiliar. According to Mander, this assumptionis belied by the unusualimportancegiven to the editorial preface in fiction of the period, which by providing a perspective other than the narrator'stends to diminish the authority of the narratorialvoice: style, too, for Marivaux, far from being a collection of idiosyncrasiesdesigned to individualize a narrator,is an instrument of analysis using novelty as a means of strivingfor objectivity. Marivaux's reflective narratorsseek general truths,whose individualcharacteris furtherbrokenby the Chinese-box structureof interpolated stories in which they are embedded; the experience of the secondary narrator is passed on to the main narrator,and thence to the editorand the 'good reader',who applies the lessons of the read text to himself or herself. These are the circles of learning of the title, implying an approach to reading skillsthat is fundamentally different from that of the twentieth century. Mander's aim is not, however, to belittle narratology,but to view it as a historicalphenomenon in the same way as eighteenth-century texts and to establish a dialogue between them. Marivaldian first-personnarrationmay have had itsroleto playin stimulatingthe autobiographical approach, and the transitioncan be glimpsed in Prevost,who in his firstnovel, the Memoires d'unhomme dequalite, celebratesand appearsto conform to the model of reading and narration outlined above, but who in the later volumes of this novel and subsequentworksprovidesevidence of the model breakingdown. Mander's study is remarkable for the thrust and coherence of an argument embracing a wide variety of disparatematerialwithout ever losing a firm sense of direction. The author is as comfortablewith the closely arguedlogic of the theorist Frederick in the late I750S. The focal point of interest remains, however, the attractive and intriguingfigure of Louise-Dorothee herself, whose culture, intelligence , astonishingly wide range of interests, and warm humanity shine out from almosteverypage. The editionbenefitsconsiderablyfroma substantialandinformativeintroduction, which not only provides a well-documented historicaland bibliographicalcontext but also contains useful sections on the literary and philosophical aspects of the letters,including a section on style and language, sheddingfreshlight on the whole question offrancophonie in this period. Technical presentation is excellent, with full bibliographical,historical, and critical annotation set out clearly after each letter. There are two appendices containing nine supplementarylettersto and from third parties,togetherwith a bibliographyand fullindex. UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD DAVID WILLIAMS CirclesofLearning: JVarratology andtheEighteenth-Century French Novel. ByJENNYMANDER. (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 366) Oxford: The Voltaire Foundation. I999. viii + 232 pp. One of the constant problems with theory is itsjuxtaposition with texts. A theory giving a convincing account of one categoryof texts may be less convincing applied to another category, andJenny Mander's contention is that Genettian narratology is not as appropriate as has been supposed when used as a tool of analysis...