Stendhal et l'expérience du miroir

Due to his definition of the novel as a mirror, Stendhal has been targeted since the 1960s by avant-garde literary critics who claim him to be representative of bygone writers believing in the exact superposition of things and their representation. Against this argument, Stendhalians have responded by stressing the importance of the writer's romanesque side. However, what if the experience of the mirror is, for him, nothing less than facing the unveiling of the real, which challenges the order of reality incessantly? The present article thus reexamines the image of the mirror in Stendhal's writings as a key feature of his modernity.