FONCTION DES COULEURS DANS

Abstract

The subject of our dissertation is the analysis of the function of color and of light and shadow in Le Rouge et le Noir and La Regenta. By function we mean the study of chromatic symbolism in these novels; each being a closed world in which the meaning depends neither on the author's personal existence nor on the external circumstances of the novel. The author then becomes a narrator who likewise only exists in his creation, and the historical circumstances of his era or time can only serve as references if they are explicitly or implicitly mentioned in the work. Colors therefore form a meaningful and coherent system in each work, and the object of our study is thus to explain and to compare the color systems of the two novels in question. There are three distinct functions in the chromatic schemes of Le Rouge et le Noir and La Regenta: an historical function, a social function and a religious function; each of which is analysed respectively in the three chapters of our dissertation. Each function also corresponds to two different reading levels in each novel: an historical and social level, as well as a religious level. The historical and social level, treated in the first two chapters, consists of a diachronic and synchronic study which manifests itself in the affective relationships which the characters maintain with the past, and in their capacity to adapt to both he political regime and to the system of individual and social values of their era. The religious level, treated in the third chapter, consists of an analysis of the importance given to the symbolic figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary in the creation of the characters. This religious symbolism accounts indirectly for each narrator's concept of the function of literature and the power of the book to right an historical situation which seems unacceptable to them. Thus, it is in the relationship between religion and language that one best perceives the narrator's point of view and the ultimate message of his work.