The Framework of Le Palace, Histoire and Les Géorgiques

Abstract

More than a synonym for ‘narrative structure’, the concept of ‘narrative frame’ which I have been employing so far refers to the system of narrative order emanating from a stable ‘point fixe’ which in most conventional novels either takes the form of a reliable narrator (as in first person narratives) or a fixed spatiotemporal setting (as in third person narratives). In other words, as Uspensky and Lotman underline in their reference to visual art, the stress is on perspective. Narrative frame is the perspective from which the narration is formulated, as well as the perspective from which the reader can decode this formulation. However, the main characteristic of the ‘nouveau roman’ is that this frame is fundamentally undermined. As the previous chapter showed, the ‘point fixe’ of narrative perspective in La Route des Flandres is missing. Whilst the narrative perspective in this novel may be described as the self-conscious awareness of an ‘absent frame’, in Le Palace the perspective is one of ‘multiple frame’, and in Histoire it may be termed ‘frame shift’. The profound disintegration of narrative perspective which gathers pace in La Bataille de Pharsale and culminates in Les Géorgiques will be discussed later.