« Petit à petit, progressivement, pour toujours »: Images du temps dans les proses de Urmuz

Abstract

A singular Romanian writer, often considered a precursor of the avant-garde, Urmuz (1883– 1923) left a complex representation of time in his work. Alongside chronological temporality, we find the elements of a more complex temporal imaginary, which is essentially critical of notions of progress. The paper proposes a close reading of the prose endings, to underline the particular aspects of the representation of time: the integration of destruction, its indefinite continuity, its positioning in relation to the future. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s reading of the Epistle to the Romans, we highlight the messianic character of the time represented in Urmuz’s prose. Through an analysis of the linguistic dimensions of temporal expressions, as well as an analysis of the relationship between time and the imaginary of filiation, we attempt to discuss the possibility of a critique of modernity and what we might call, with a notion borrowed from François Hartog, an alternative regime of historicity.