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“Souvenir” and “Imagination” in the Works of Rousseau and Nerval

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The Philosophical Reflection of Man in Literature

Part of the book series: Analecta Husserliana ((ANHU,volume 12))

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Abstract

Two mental processes, remembering and fantasizing, characterize much of the autobiographical and literary work of the eighteenth-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the nineteenth-century French romanticist Gerard de Nerval. 1 The influence of such works as Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse, Confessions, Les Rêveries d’un Promeneur Solitaireon Nerval has already been studied in detail. 2 The way in which Nerval makes use of “souvenir” and “imagination” in his work, shows not only a definite affinity of mind and thought between himself and Rousseau but also the originality of his own poetic genius. This study, therefore, does not deal with the question of influence but compares the scope of two thematic complexes in the writings of the two authors.

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Notes

  1. I am indebted to Karl Maurer of the University of Bochum (West Germany) who first suggested the topic of this paper to me in a slightly different version.

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  2. Cf. J. Kneller, ‘Nerval and Rousseau,’ PMLA 68 (1953), 150–69.

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  3. Voltaire, Dictionnaire Philosophique (Paris: Pourrat Frères, 1838), XVI, 152.

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  4. Denis Diderot, Oeuvres Complètes,ed. J. Assezat (Paris: Garnier, 1876), XV, 35.

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  5. Ibid., p. 36.

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  6. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, System des transzendentalen Idealismus (1800) (Stuttgart/Augsburg, 1858), pp. 559ff.

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  7. Cf. Lester G. Crocker, Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Prophetic Voice (1758–1778) (New York: Macmillan, 1973), vol. 2, esp. chaps. 2, 4.

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  8. Albert Béguin, L’Ame Romantique et le Rêve: Essai sur le Romantisme Allemand et la Poésie Française (Paris: 1964), p. 335.

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  9. Rousseau Juge de Jean Jacques: Dialogues, ed. M. Musset-Pathy (Brussels, 1928), II, 40.

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  10. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire, ed. Henri Roddier (Paris: Garnier, 1960), p. 14.

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  11. Rousseau Juge,pp. 212f.

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  12. Cf. B. Munteano, Solitude et Contradictions de Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Paris: A. G. Nizet, 1975), pp. 187–95.

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  13. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloïse,in Oeuvres Complètes,vol. 2, ed. Henri Coulet and Bernard Guyon (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), p. 693.

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  14. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Les Confessions,ed. A. van Bever (Paris, 1926), p. 231.

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  15. Rousseau, Les Rêveries,p. 74.

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  16. Rousseau Juge,p. 216. Cf. Rousseau, Oeuvres, Correspondance,vol. 3 (Paris: Lefèvre, 1820), p. 390: “… quand ma cervelle s’échauffe trop, le calmer en analysant quelque mousse ou quelque fougère; enfin me livrer sans gêne a mes fantaisies…” (1767).

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  17. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile ou de l’Education (Paris: Garnier, n. d.), p. 59.

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  18. Rousseau Juge,p. 230. Cf. Les Rêveries,p. 114 and Les Confessions,IV, 219.

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  19. Rousseau, Correspondance, III, 457.

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  20. Rousseau, Les Rêveries,p. 28.

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  21. Rousseau Juge, pp. 41f.

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  22. Rousseau, Emile, p. 167.

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  23. Rousseau Juge,p. 205.

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  24. Ibid., p. 203.

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  25. Rousseau, Les Confessions,p. 135.

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  26. Cf. Rousseau, Correspondance,III, 392: “Le souvenir de mes amis donne a ma rêverie un charme que lé souvenir de mes ennemis ne trouble point.”

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  27. Rousseau, Les Confessions,p. 155.

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  28. Rousseau, Correspondance, IV, 248.

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  29. Rousseau, Les Confessions,p. 274.

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  30. Ibid., pp. 279f.

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  31. Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloîse,p. 289.

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  32. Ibid., p. 667.

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  33. Ibid., p. 509.

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  34. Ibid., p. 675.

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  35. Cf. Kurt Schärer, Thématique de Nerval ou le Monde Récomposé (Paris: Minard, 1968).

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  36. Gérard de Nerval, Oeuvres Complémentaires,vol. 1, La Vie des Lettres,éd. Jean Richer (Paris: Minard, 1959), p. 13.

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  37. Gérard de Nerval, Oeuvres (Paris: Gallimard, 1956). I (Isis,var. 1845), 1204.

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  38. Cf. Francois Constans, ‘Nerval et l’Amour Platonique: La Pandora,’ Mercure de France,324 (1955), 97–119.

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  39. Gérard de Nerval, Oeuvres,éd. Henri Lemaitre, 2 vols. (Paris: Garnier, 1958), I, 502 (A Alexandre Dumas).

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  40. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), I, 268 (Les Confidences de Nicolas).

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  41. Ibid., p. 591 (Sylvie..

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  42. Ibid., p. 142 (Les Confidences de Nicolas..

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  43. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), II, 289, 309, 312, 314, 315, 342, 511, 524.

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  44. Ibid., pp. 309, 310, 323, 330.

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  45. Ibid., p. 253.

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  46. Nerval, Oeuvres Complémentaires,I, 20.

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  47. Ibid., p. 20.

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  48. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), II, 336.

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  49. Nerval, Oeuvres Complémentaires,I, 21.

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  50. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), I, 776 (Aurélia); italics mine.

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  51. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), II, 407 (Druses et Maronites); italics mine.

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  52. Cf. M.-J. Durry, Gérard de Nerval et le Mythe (Paris, 1956).

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  53. See J.-P. Richard, ‘Gérard de Nerval ou la Profondeur Délivrée,’ Critique, 97 (1955), 483–509.

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  54. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), I, 819 (Aurélia).

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  55. Ibid., p. 805.

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  56. Ibid., p. 767.

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  57. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), II, 406 (Histoire du Calife Hakem).

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  58. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), I, 422 (Les Nuits d’Octobre).

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  59. Ibid., p. 466 (Promenades et Souvenirs)..

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  60. Ibid., p. 801 (Aurélia)..

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  61. Ibid., p. 809 (Aurélia)..

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  62. Jean Gaulmier, Gérard de Nerval et les Filles du Feu (Paris, 1956) describes Nerval’s desire “d’établir la durée par la puissance du souvenir” (p. 36).

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  63. Nerval, Oeuvres (Minard), II, 1292 (Voyage en Orient; Vers l’Orient,var. 1844).

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  64. Nerval, Oeuvres Complémentaires,vol. 1, Préface de la Première Edition du Faust,p. 6.

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  65. Nerval, Oeuvres (Garnier), I, 611 (Sylvie).

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  66. Ibid., p. 643 (Octavie)..

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  67. This is most poignantly expressed in Nerval’s letter to Gautier of 7 September 1843: “Toi, tu crois encore a l’ibis, au lotus pourpré, au Nil jaune; tu crois au palmier d’émeraude, au nopal, au chameau peut-être. … Hélas! l’ibis est un oiseau sauvage, le lotus un oignon vulgaire; le Nil est une eau rousse a reflets d’ardoise, le palmier a l’air d’un plumeau grêle, le nopal n’est qu’un cactus, le chameau n’existe qu’a l’état de dromedaire….”

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Authors
  1. Christoph Eykman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The World Institute for Advanced Phenomenological Research and Learning Belmont, Massachusetts, USA

    Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka

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© 1982 D. Reidel Publishing Company

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Eykman, C. (1982). “Souvenir” and “Imagination” in the Works of Rousseau and Nerval. In: Tymieniecka, AT. (eds) The Philosophical Reflection of Man in Literature. Analecta Husserliana, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7720-4_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7720-4_23

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-7722-8

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