Studia Litterarum

2500-4247

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2024-9-4-50-69

Research Article

Articles

The Russian Background in George Sand’s Novel L’Homme de Neige

Popova

Anna V.

red@studlit.ru

December 25, 2024

2024

April 18, 2024

The article presents results obtained after a thorough research of the ways of interpreting the “Russian theme” by George Sand, which has not yet become the subject of a separate study. The writer’s works for a wide range of readers objectify ethno-stereotypes related to the geographical remoteness of Russia, its climate, state structure, and national character. Based on Sand’s novel, L'Homme de Neige (1859), the article shows how the Russian theme fits into the context of her worldview and develops in accordance with her idiostyle, in which binary oppositions play a crucial role. Russian characters in the novel have no independent value but act as antipodes for good ones, whose life position is consonant with the writer’s ideas. The opposition of patriotism, authenticity, sincerity, honesty, and selflessness to corruption, imitation, hypocrisy, cunning, and mercenariness, attributed by the author to Russians or those who sympathise with them, reveals and clarifies one of the most significant categorical oppositions in George Sand’s novels structure — “natural / artificial.” The image of Russia and Russians in the writer’s works appears as a background. It is shaped by stereotypes that have already been fixed in the consciousness and are easily recognisable to the French reader, which turns out to be consonant with her negativist perception of Russian history, foreign policy, and state ideals.

George Sand novel Russia’s image Gallomania ethnostereotype binary oppositions

2026

1 Golubkov, A.V. “Rossiiskie tsari i imperatory v zerkale frantsuzskikh anekdotov nachala XIX v.” [“Russian Tsars and Emperpors Reflected in the Mirror of French Anecdotes of the Beginning of the 19th Century”]. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 40, 2017, pp. 228–248. (In Russ.)

2 Goncharova, T.N. “Osobennosti mestnogo kolorita v ʽrusskikh romanakhʼ Polia de Zhiul’vekura” [“Local Colour in ʽRussian Novels’ by Paul de Julvecourt”]. Iazyk i kul’tura v global’nom mire [Languages and Cultures in the Global World]. St. Petersburg, LEMA Publ., 2022, pp. 55–62. (In Russ.)

3 Krauss, Sh. “Teoriia klimata kak kliuch k vospriiatiiu Rossii cherez frantsuzskuiu literaturu XIX v.” [“Climate Theory as a Key to Perception of Russia through 19th- Century French Literature”]. Bagno, V.E., and M.E. Malikova, editors. K istorii idei na Zapade: “Russkaia ideia” [Toward the History of Ideas in the West: “Russian Idea”]. St. Petersburg, Pushkin House Publ., Petropolis Publ., 2010, pp. 143–167. (In Russ.)

4 Kukharskii, G.A. “Kratkaia letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva Frederika Shopena” [“A Brief Chronicle of Frederic Chopin’s Life and Work”]. Shopen, F. Pis’ma [Correspondence], vol. 1. Moscow, Muzyka Publ., 1976, pp. 23–47. (In Russ.)

5 Minakov, A.Iu. “Antizapadnicheskie motivy v rannem russkom konservatizme” [“Аnti-Westernism in Early Russian Conservatism”]. Tetradi po konservatizmu, no. 3, 2015, pp. 16–24. DOI: 10.24030/2409-2517-2015-3-16-24 (In Russ.)

6 Orekhov, V.V. Mif o Rossii vo frantsuzskoi literature pervoi poloviny XIX veka [The Myth of Russia in French Literature of the First Half of the 19th Century]. Simferopol, Simferopol’skaia gorodskaia tipografiia Publ., 2008. 200 p. (In Russ.)

7 Oshchepkov, A.R. Obraz Rossii vo frantsuzskoi proze XIX veka [The Image of Russia in French Prose of the 19th Century: DSc Thesis, Summary]. Moscow, 2011. 32 p. (In Russ.)

8 Polonskу, V.V. Dva veka ot Karamzina: Literatura v dialogakh s istoriei i mezhkul’turnykh sviaziakh [Two Centuries from Karamzin: Literature in Dialogues with History and in Cross-Cultural Relations]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2024. 960 p. https://doi.org/10.22455/978-5-9208-0733-5 (In Russ.)

9 Auraix-Jonchiere, Pascale. “George Sand et la magie des neiges.” Lieux magiques. Magie des lieux, Mélanges offerts a Claude Foucart, etudes reunies et presentees par Simone Bernard-Griffiths et Angels Santa. Clermont-Ferrand, PUBP, 2008, pp. 11–21. (In French)

10.

10 Bara, Olivier. “Prolongements romanesques des pratiques theatrales de George Sand: Le Chateau des Desertes, L’Homme de Neige, Pierre qui roule, ou le theatre au miroir du roman.” George Sand: Pratiques et imaginaires de l’écriture. Caen, Presses universitaires de Caen, 2006, pp. 225–237. Available at: http://books.openedition.org/puc/9824 (Accessed 12 November 2023). (In French)

11.

11 Cadot, Michel. La Russie dans la vie intellectuelle française (1839–1856). Paris, Fayard, 1967. 642 p. (In French)

12.

12 Collani, Tania. L’Essai sur le drame fantastique de George Sand: la Révolution romantique du drame. 2004. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242282690_L’Essai_sur_le_drame_fantastique_de_George_Sand_la_Revolution_romantique_du_drame?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InByb2ZpbGUiLCJwYWdlIjoicHJvZmlsZSJ9fQ (Accessed 12 November 2023). (In French)

13.

13 Genevray, Francoise. George Sand et ses contemporains russes, audience, échos, réécritures. Paris, L’Harmattan, 2000. 412 p. (In French)

14.

14 Krauss, Charlotte. La Russie et les Russes dans la fiction française du XIXe siecle (1812–1917): d’une image de l’autre a un univers imaginaire. Amsterdam, New York, Rodopi, 2007. 446 p. (In French)

15.

15 Lozinskij, Gregoire. “La Russie dans la litterature francaise du Moyen Age: le pays.” Revue des Études slaves, t. 9, nu. 1–2, 1929, pp. 71–88. https://doi.org/10.3406/slave.1929.7433 (In French)

16.

16 Michelot, Isabelle. “L’acteur et le performer. Echanges et dedoublements dans le roman theatral sandien.” Nesci, Catherine, et Olivier Bara, editeurs. Écriture, performance et théâtralité dans l’oeuvre de Georges Sand. Grenoble, UGA Editions, 2014. Available at: https://books.openedition.org/ugaeditions/4761 (Accessed 12 November 2023). https://doi.org/10.4000/books.ugaeditions.4761 (In French)

17.

17 Powell, David A. “Du journal au roman: ʽJournal d’un voyageur pendant la guerreʼ et ʽFranciaʼ.” Goldin, Jeanne, editeur. George Sand et l’écriture du roman: Actes du XIe Colloque international George Sand. Montreal, Paragraphes (Universite de Montreal), 1996, pp. 163–177. (In French)

18.

18 Santa, Angels. “A la recherche de l’ideal chez George Sand.” No 12: Literatura, crítica, libertad. Estudios en homenaje a Juan Bravo Castillo. Cuenca, Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2020, pp. 223–230. Available at: https://ruidera.uclm.es/handle/10578/27841 (Accessed 12 November 2023). https://doi.org/10.18239/homenajes_2020.13.14 (In French)

19.

19 Santa, Angels. “De l’eau noire du suicide a la feerie merveilleuse de l’illusion blanche.” Ghillebaert, Francoise, et Madeleine Vala, editeurs. Water Imagery in George Sand’s Work. Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018, pp. 39–57. (In French)