L’enfant et les vieillards. Une mesure du temps dans les récits d’enfance (Chateaubriand, Gide)
Children and old people. A Measure of Time in Childhood Stories (Chateaubriand, Gide)

Author(s): Damien Zanone
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, French Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: autobiography; childhood stor; old age; Chateaubriand; Gide
Summary/Abstract: Among the frequent scenes in autobiographical childhood stories are those that show the child of old times surrounded by old people (grandparents in particular), whom the author recalls as he himself grows old or even reaches old age. Through these scenes, the story of childhood always rewrites a fable of children and old people whose stakes are multiple: taking the measure of time, thinking about the ages of life, meditating on filiation, taming death. The article looks at two examples: Chateaubriand’s "Mémoires d’outre-tombe" [Memoirs from Beyond the Grave] and Gide’s "Si le grain de meurt" [If I Die. An Autobiography].

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