Vraisemblances: poétiques et théorie de la fiction, du Cinquecento à Jean Chapelain by Anne Duprat (review)

focuses less on the application of psychoanalysis to literature, or the psychoanalytical interpretation of the characters, than on the poetics of dreams: “L’écriture du rêve se laisse concevoir comme le miroir grossissant de l’activité créatrice et fantasmatique de l’écrivain” (19). The author begins with a formal, rhetorical study of the composition of dreams, and then, over the course of four chapters, presents a diachronic examination of the literary motif of the dream in the romans antiques and courtly romance . She focuses on the overarching theme of dream in terms of truth or falsehood: first, associated with myth; second, as religious truth; third, on interpreters and interpretation; and finally, as courtly truths, centering on interpersonal relations and family conflicts. She concludes with a reading of the Roman de la Rose as an innovative (Guillaume de Lorris) and ultimately ironic (Jean de Meun) dream narrative. Demaules’s diachronic approach allows her to trace a progressive desacralization of dreams in literature. Dreams in Antiquity and in the Bible are primarily divine messages to exceptional men that are relatively easy to understand with the aid of an interpreter. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, on the other hand, dreams increasingly center on human concerns, revealing an increasing subjectivity and reflecting the psychic, interior life of the individual unconscious. As readers, we must puzzle out the symbolic meaning of these dreams by means of allegorical (quasi-exegetical) interpretation. The diachronic approach to dreams also unveils the aesthetic evolution of romance narratives. From its beginnings as a self-contained event within a fictional narrative, the dream in twelfth- and thirteenth -century romance is a quasi-autobiographical, allegorical frame that contains the fiction of the narrative without providing clear meaning to it. This is especially true for the Roman de la Rose, which Demaules sees as enacting a major transformation of the dream narrative. She notes that Guillaume’s faith in the truth-value of dreams not only reflects the new interest in the inner life of the individual but also guides his writing, as he substitutes the magic allegorical world of dreams for the world’s logic. Jean de Meun, on the other hand, takes an ironic distance to the dream, abolishing the oneiric atmosphere of his predecessor. This volume contains two useful appendices of dreams that appear in twelfthand thirteenth-century romance (including references to the line numbers and the edition) and that appear in the Bible. The bibliography is organized into useful categories according to fields of knowledge, including art, anthropology, linguistics , and psychoanalysis, among others. Although it is expensive, scholars of French romance will find this volume a treasure chest, as the author makes a compelling case for taking medieval dreams seriously. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Michelle Bolduc DUPRAT, ANNE. Vraisemblances: poétiques et théorie de la fiction, du Cinquecento à Jean Chapelain. Paris: Champion, 2009. ISBN 978-2-7453-1814-5. Pp. 408. 75 a. Cherchant à retracer les conditions de l’essor d’une théorie de la fiction, durant la période qui s’étend de la fin du Quattrocento en Italie à l’époque dite du classicisme en France, Duprat met en exergue le moment fondamental où des auteurs comme Jules César Scaliger s’émancipèrent du système de classification 1166 FRENCH REVIEW 85.6 des disciplines hérité de la scolastique médiévale. Lorsque les théoriciens cherch èrent à distinguer la poésie des autres artes en lui assignant un domaine qui lui est propre, naquit une véritable pensée de la fiction: ce domaine est celui de la vraisemblance, dont Duprat a voulu retrouver la théorie chez des auteurs aussi différents que Robortello, Castelvetro, le Tasse, Heinsius, ou encore Jean Chapelain. L’enquête se divise en deux parties. L’auteur s’intéresse d’abord aux “lumières d’Italie” (35) dans la période qui s’étend de 1480 à 1570. On découvre dans les poétiques de la première génération d’humanistes (Landino, Josse Bade, Parrasio) un état “pré-aristotélicien” (134) de la théorie littéraire. Duprat montre qu’à cette pensée rhétorique et moralisante d’inspiration horatienne et...