This section contains 11,280 words (approx. 38 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |
SOURCE: "Theory of Significant Detail" and "Theory of Structure," in The Poetics of Prosper Mérimée, Mouton and Co., 1966, pp. 42-62 and 85-91.
In the following excerpt (with footnotes numbered continuously), Dale outlines Mérimeé's aesthetic theory.
Details were Mérimée's chief formal concern: he knew that he created his impressions "in the mind's eye" by means of a comparative accumulation of details; he also knew that he must rely heavily on details when he wanted to reconstruct that impression for a reader. Having observed the extent of his fascination for details, we may now see how they became the rallying point for the formal side of his poetics.
"[Your stories] sont trop courtes et on voudrait des détails", Mérimée advised the Princess Julie. "Donnezmoi des détails, beaucoup de détails, on ne saurait trop en donner."1 Mérimée was...
This section contains 11,280 words (approx. 38 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |