Les Nouvelles orientales de Marguerite Yourcenar: Du texte des Nouvelles aux Nouvelles comme texte

The comparative analysis of two of the short stories in Nouvelles orientales by M. Yourcenar allows showing some devices of formal, structural and thematic recurrence which permit an interactive reading of the book in which what counts is not the texts in the compilation, but the compilation as a text. This crosswise perspective goes beyond the vertical approach which criticism usually saves for the form of tale or "nouvelle" compilations. Usually, what is studied is the different "pieces" which make up the compilation as if they were independent texts. In accordance with this perspective, one may question Yourcenar's task of construction and reconstruction from one edition of the Nouvelles to the other with the intention of providing the compilation with rigorous principles of coherence and organization which contribute to the reduction of narrative discontinuity. The will of imposing the compilation as a book also makes itself evident, indirectly, in the "post-scriptum" of the Nouvelles, where Yourcenar appeals to the novel as a genre in order to locate some of the stories. In this way, they seem to benefit from the ideals of totality and development characteristic of this genre. © Springer 2005.