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Chapter Six. French Existentialist Discourse
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86 Chapter Six French Existentialist Discourse The “text-sociological” or “sociocritical” work of literary sociologist Pierre V. Zima provides an interesting perspective for the analysis of literary texts, as Zima is one of the very few theorists to consider the ways in which discourses function in specific novels. The main objective of his sociology of texts (or sociocritique) is “to represent the different textual levels as structures that are at once linguistic and social” (Zima, Manuel 117). To this end, he borrows Greimas’s concept of sociolect (Greimas 53– 55) to refer to the collective languages of specific (social) groups. These collective languages—characterized by a particular lexical repertoire and a code—can be articulated concretely as different discourses that are in turn characterized by specific lexical, semantic, and narrative structures. It is the lexical repertoire and the semantic structure of a (static) sociolect that are articulated or “put into discourse” (mise en discours) to arrive at discourse (Zima, Manuel 134). This situation is reminiscent of Saussure’s langue/parole division, with the important distinction that parole is individual language use, while a discourse is obviously a collective phenomenon. It is important to note the striking similarities between Zima’s notion of sociolect and Even-Zohar’s concept of repertoire, which make the two entities virtually indistinguishable . First, both entities are made up of two identical levels: On the one hand a set of rules, and on the other hand the concrete materials to which the rules apply. Thus, the sociolect consists of a code and a lexicon; the repertoire consists of a code and concrete repertoric items. Secondly, both the sociolect and the repertoire are the materials from which discourses are built; both are articulated or represented in the form of discourse. A third important characteristic to equate sociolect with repertoire is their inextricable relation with specific social groups. In correspondence with Zima’s view of the sociolect articulating the collective interests of a specific group, Even-Zohar points out that “a group, or a separate (collective) identity” cannot be identified “without employing a distinctive, identifiable repertoire” (“Culture Planning ” . For Zima, then, specific groups will use specific discourses, and these discourses can systematically be analyzed as they appear in literary texts. Consequently, French Existentialist Discourse 87 an important aspect of Zima’s theoretical contribution is his relentless insistence on the need to relate literature to its social context by analyzing literary works at the linguistic level. For the literary text consists first and foremost of language. Only by representing ideologies and the novels that incorporate them as linguistic, discursive structures (this means semantic as well as narrative structures), can one study the intricate relation between literature and ideology. In defining this relation, Zima sides with Adorno, who “while admitting that a literary text . . . has ideological and repressive aspects, considers it an ambivalent phenomenon that combines critical elements with ideological (affirmative) elements” (Zima, Manuel 43). This means that literary texts will be both critical of ideological discourses and be ideological in themselves . The ideological discourse of fascism can be opposed in existentialist novels, but existentialism itself, as an “explicit, articulated, highly organized meaning system ” (Swidler 278) can only be considered an antagonistic ideology. In language that is highly reminiscent of Bakhtin and Kristeva, Zima posits that such a linguistic analysis of literary texts will reveal their essentially intertextual or interdiscursive nature: “In this at once social and linguistic context are situated the polysemic texts of literature, analyzed as dialogic and polemic reactions to other literary, ideological, religious, scientific, and other texts” (Zima, Manuel 1). In trying to determine how social concerns and group interests are articulated in literary texts, students should therefore no longer look for the specific (and homogeneous) vision du monde that is at the center of Lucien Goldmann’s approach. Instead, the crucial question becomes: “Which political, theological (ideological) discourses are absorbed and transformed by the literary or philosophical text?” (Zima, Manuel 63). Two preliminary text-sociological insights are important for an understanding of French existentialist discourse. As said, literary texts are ambivalent on the ideological level in that they combine elements that are critical of ideology with elements that are themselves ideological. Discourse in literary texts, in other words, will react against ideological discourse, while at the same time incorporating and becoming ideological discourse. As such, French existentialist discourse is both a reaction against totalitarian discourse, and an ideological discourse in and of...