Le pacte tacite du roman biographique

Abstract:

The article is centred around what its author calls the “tacit pact of the autobiographical novel”: in the course of the narration of an episode in a historical figure’s life a hypothetical truth is revealed that seems to be both plausible and impossible. The novel attempts to fill a biographical gap. On one hand, the story’s plausibility aims to convince the reader of the correctness of the events that are told. On the other hand, the author creates, implicitly, a certain distance, thus indicating that the entire text is to be read as a fiction. In this dialectic between verisimilitude and impossibility biographical fiction, which risks at any moment to slide into vagueness, becomes legitimate. In light of this “pact” Jan Herman analyzes Joke Hermsen’s recent novel, De liefde dus (2008), which focuses on a mysterious episode in Isabelle de Charrière’s life.

SvD, October 2009

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• Publications > Belle de Zuylen Papers > 2009 > Herman