Pauses commentatives ou comment ralentir le récit dans le roman de Denis Diderot, Jacques le Fataliste et son maître
Commentary breaks or how to slow down the story in Denis Diderot's novel, Jacques le Fataliste et son maître

Author(s): Ana-Elena Costandache
Subject(s): French Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: protagonist; story; slowdown; event; narrator; time;
Summary/Abstract: The time of Jacques’ love stories… little adventures that every reader looks forward to. Whether it is the pleasure of the text told in a more or less determined duration and in a variety of tones (comic, serious or pathetic), the story of the adventures of Jacques the fatalist becomes the leitmotif of the novel having the homonymous title. But when would they be told? How to move them forward when the protagonists (master and valet) are always on the same road, when time seems to slow down each time you are about to move forward, as the saying goes ”get up with a light foot and go away quietly”? The reader is subject to the same expectation as the Master of the protagonist, having fun at the sight of his valet who takes the trouble to consider himself a formidable philosopher, but who never manages to bring his memoirs to a successful conclusion. We propose, by the present study, a fine analysis of the technique of the slowing down of the story and the commentary pauses inserted in the main narration, to better understand and observe the diegetic levels of the narration and the frequency of the author’s interventions, fact that makes the narrative thread of Diderot’s novel slower.

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