Chateaubriand e la gravità del comico

VASARRI, FABIO

2009-01-01

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Abstract

Chateaubriand’s official image as a gloomy and melancholy romantic hero has been hiding the comical aspects of his works. This is the first systematic essay on the subject. Several kinds of comical writing are dealt with : “comique de situation” and “de caractère”; the wit (“esprit”) of the Ancien Régime and the irony of the Enlightenment; puns (“comique de mots”); political satire; finally, black humour and genuine self-irony. Chateaubriand’s texts, as well as his views on the comic and some biographical documents, are the main objects of investigation. For all his ambiguity and compromises, Chateaubriand finds his place in the rise of the modern comic, in a cultural context marked by romantic irony, grotesque and Baudelaire’s “comique absolu”.