The Character of the Diarist

  • Trevor Field
Chapter

Abstract

Since the form involved in the personal diary or journal intime concentrates on the life of the individual rather than on large-scale events in the outside world, it is hardly surprising that there should be a perceived correlation between the written record and the diarist’s very existence. Delacroix lamented on various occasions the frequent gaps in his journal, regretting in particular the fact that unmentioned days seemed not to have existed; and the feeling that ‘I am still in control of the days I have recorded’2 finds a notable fictional counterpart in Michel Tournier’s recreation of the Robinson Crusoe story, Vendredi, ou les limbes du Pacifique. Robinson’s initial loss of time after the shipwreck is here remedied in large part by the writing of his ‘log-book’, for it creates a new life even as it inaugurates a new calendar. If Robinson says it is Tuesday, then Tuesday it is, and apart from the analogy with the water-clock which he invents (and which allows him to stop time merely by stopping the dripping water) the personal value of the record of time is stressed in the idea that ‘by restarting my calendar I regained possession of myself’.3

Keywords

Split Personality Schizoid Personality Atypical Work Moral Ambivalence Ugly Duckling 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

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Copyright information

© Trevor Field 1989

Authors and Affiliations

  • Trevor Field
    • 1
  1. 1.University of AberdeenUK

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