Ольга Александровна Гримова – кандидат филологических наук, препода- Mise en abyme как репрезентация травмы
ватель кафедры истории русской литературы, теории литературы и критики Ку- («Белый отель» Д.М. Томаса)
банского государственного университета (Краснодар).
Научные интересы: современный русский роман, теория литературы, нарра- Аннотация. В статье рассматривается проблема репрезентации травматиче-
тология. ского опыта в нарративе посредством фигуры mise en abyme. Методологический
E-mail: astra_vesperia@mail.ru вектор исследования сформирован на пересечении риторической нарратологии,
когнитивной нарратологии, trauma studies и теории литературы. Mise en abyme,
Olga Grimova – Candidate of Philology, lecturer at the Department of History традиционно известная как фигура, задающая авторефлексивное измерение в
of Russian Literature, Theory of Literature and criticism of Kuban State University, тексте, приобретает новый функциональный импульс в литературе постмодер-
Krasnodar. низма. В частности, авторы прибегают к ней для воссоздания в нарративе инди-
Research interests: modern Russian novel, theory of literature, narratology. видуальной или коллективной травмы. С какой именно целью фигура начинает
E-mail: astra_vesperia@mail.ru использоваться в постмодернистском литературном дискурсе? Каким образом
постмодернистские нарративные практики участвуют в культурном контексте ос-
мысления и интерпретации истории ХХ в.? В статье разворачивается предполо-
жение о существовании нескольких особых моделей mise en abyme, одна из кото-
рых направлена на отражение травмы в нарративе. На материале «Белого отеля»
Д.М. Томаса (1981) рассматриваются и описываются основные характеристики
данной модели: композиционная структура, семантические отношения, средства
индермедиального и модального воплощения mise en abyme.
Ключевые слова: mise en abyme; исследование травмы; нарратив; когнитив-
ная нарратология; риторическая нарратология; «Белый отель».
***
In present day interdisciplinary researches devoted to trauma studies, a
special attention is given to the forms of its reflecting in culture. The object
of studying is no longer limited by clinically observed cases of traumatic and
36 37
Новый филологический вестник. 2016. №4(39).
posttraumatic neurosis but also includes representations of individual and social a reduplicating structure or technique of splitting a narrative utterance into a
traumatic experience based on either real or fictional events and represented in number of similar structures with the aim of influencing the reader in a certain
language and discourse as well as in literature and art. The so-called problem way. This implies that self-reflexive elements interact with each other either as
of “the language of trauma” is closely connected with its representation in a embedded storyworlds or as fragments of diegesis interconnected by similarity.
narrative as in a special discourse form, which most vividly depicts the unity of Therefore, the text recreates within itself the elements of its own structure, thus
memory and history. reflecting in some part the language, theme, function or process of its creation.
The connection between trauma and narrative representation is tackled Mise en abyme turns out to be efficient almost in every remarkable tendency of
upon in basic works of specialists of various disciplines: from psychoanalysis the 20 century: from a Nouveau roman to magic realism, a unique number of
and anthropology to historiography and literary criticism; from E. Santer1 meanings, however, being revealed by European postmodernism starting with
and D. LaCapra2 to S. Felman3 and C. Caruth4. Despite all the differences late 70es.
in approaches, the scholars unanimously recognize the issue of measuring a There’s no single meaning in interpreting the functional and semantic
narrative, which in trauma studies is regarded to be one of the most important potential of mise en abyme. While in a French Nouveau roman – a chief
tools for a traumatized conscience to build a new identity. ground for experiments with this structure – mise en abyme is used to state the
On the other hand, within the narratology itself there appear tendencies impermeability and insularity of meanings as well as to make the text an infinite
preconditions for interdisciplinary studies of trauma. After uniting different “play of sign-substitutions”10, the interpretation of the device becomes more
points of view on narrative’s functioning in social and cultural context, the complicated with the broadening of empirics. Taking into consideration that
postclassical paradigm is now searching for the grounds for analyzing and in present day scientific discourse mise en abyme is understood mainly with
interpreting various forms of narrative interpretation of experience, including reference to the only existing typology offered by L. Dällenbach more than
marginal and traumatic experience. 40 years ago (his essay Le récit spéculaire: essai sur la mise en abyme11 was
Generally speaking, in postclassical (cognitive) narratology (in works by published in the collection “Poétique” in 1977), the question of its relevance
M. Fludernic5, D. Herman6, M.-L, Ryan7, D. Shiffrin8 and others) narrative seems really acute nowadays. Particularly disputable appears the statement that
is understood as the representation of personal or somebody else’s living mise en abyme is but an operator of ludic poetics and is narrowed to a mere
experience given by the protagonist or other participants of the storyworld. process of creating a metafictional effect in a narrative.
Another valuable approach, however, consists in the idea that any narrative is The thing is, that the existence of such texts as The White Hotel by
an anthropological fact that registers in discourse facts and events, which are D.M. Thomas (1981) questions the established interpretation of mise en abyme
turning into various narrative practice9. Therefore, on the one hand, a narrative in conventional scientific discourse. Why would D.M. Thomas turn to the logic
text projects knowledge about the world and the subject into the culture, thus of reduplicating structure in a novel devoted to the description of Jew genocide
shaping and reconstructing life experience. On the other hand, a narrative during WWII?
functions as a certain filter of some events, which acquire historical or cultural The analyses of the device in modernist and postmodernist text shows that
context. That is why, along with evident and stable narrative models, ways of mise en abyme implies differentiated semantic relations in the narration rather
representing experience that deviate from norm also arise interest. Traditionally than simply presents the rigid structure. The types of mise en abyme in the text
such models constitute the sphere of research of rhetorical narratology, of the 20 century may be depicted by several schemes and models combined
which studies narrative figures, violating traditional narrative model. Here an by the similarity of the functions performed and the configuration of attributes.
interesting intercourse of cognitive and rhetorical narratology may be observed, The notion of “model” allows to broaden the empirics and to analyze various
as, breaking the bars of rhetorical paradigm, a narrative device is regarded to texts, which are built on the basis of narrative reduplication, in a single time
be not only a stylistic or rhetoric device but also a model of representation of a perspective as well as to reveal a certain “formula” used by the authors for
certain border experience. Nevertheless, this sphere does not yet abound in a lot narrative text producing in the 20 century. The model may be based on the
of achievement as far as the diversification of a research field in postclassical following principles:
narratology tends to broaden itself rather than to integrate heuristic models. • Composition structure;
• Intermedial and/or modal realization of mise en abyme;
Frontiers of mise en abyme • Semantic relations between the fragment en abyme and the text;
• Narrative representation of mise en abyme (reduplication at the level of
In the range of rhetorical and narrative figures creating fiction, mise en story or at the level of discourse).
abyme is one the most recurrent devices in modernism and postmodernism. Studying modernist and postmodernist text by these principles allows to
Traditionally mise en abyme is studied as a narrative figure that stimulates a single out a number of models functioning in the fiction of the 20 century. One
self-reflexive dimension in the text. Basically, this device may be defined as of them is model of representing a trauma.
38 39
Новый филологический вестник. 2016. №4(39).
of expressing reduplication: the description of events of the “white hotel” in the • Gradation of reduplications in the composition and representation of the
first three chapters is given in various discourse representations (the scientific traumatic event, which is the epicenter of mise en abyme, at the end of the
discourse of Freud’s article is opposed to “schizophrenic” discourse of the narrative structure;
patient, the genre of the article is opposed to the genre of a private diary etc.) • Building reduplication on the basis of elements of story;
and various modal representation (a dream, a delirium, a vision). • Distortion and modification of traumatic events by means of its
There are certain auto referent relations established within the primary representation in various discourse and modal planes;
narrative, i.e. between the Gastein diary and Sigmund Freud’s article. Thus, • Establishing semantic relations between reduplication and primary
for example, the traumatic event of shooting Jews in Babiy Yar and throwing narrative by means of concealing the meaning.
their bodies in a deep ditch (chapter five) is disguised in Lisa Erdman’s diary
as a hallucination about men and women bodies falling from broken funicular ***
(chapter one):
When speaking about The White Hotel, it is important to mention that is a
the women fell more slowly, almost drifting, highly ambiguous novel (the ambiguity being mainly caused the contradiction
because their petticoats and skirts were galing, of constructing the strategies of interpreting the novel, rather than by difficulties
the men fell through them, my heart was breaking, in reception, open dislike of criticism, an uneasy integration into the literary
the women seemed to rise not fall, a dance contexts of the 80es or difficulties in screaning etc.). This ambiguity comes
in which the men were lifting in light hands
from a special kind of combination of literary, historical and intellectual means,
light ballerinas high above their heads,
the men were first to come to ground, and then which, apart from other ways, are represented in narrative configurations of
the women fell into the lake or trees, the text. It is evident, for instance, that the “hotel in the mountains” topos as
silently followed by a few bright skis16. well as time and death connotations connected with it, remind of well-known
20 century texts, while including into the novel the factual event of Babiy Yar
Apart from establishing auto referent connections between various massacre implicitly actualizes certain ideological models, connected with the
diegetic levels, the mise en abyme figure is supported by specific self-reflexive historical memory of European culture of the 20 century. However, as opposed
semiotic mechanism of connecting narrative elements into a syntagmatic chain. to the traditional postmodernist poetics of play, the rhetoric of the “White Hotel”
D.M. Thomas’s authorial poetics is characterized by a specific feature: each is not limited to the recombination and reconstruction of ready-made storylines.
new image is created by a previous one, the semiotic mechanism of creating The novel turns to an active “hyper coding of topic”19 (as suggest by U. Eco)
a sign being actualized on the basis of analogy with the neighboring sing. This with the aim of uniting the contradictory phenomena, which belong to different
mechanism works on the full scale in the “White Hotel”, thus, for example, the planes, as well as to evaluate the events, which are impossible to realize. With
character dreams about bullets piercing her shoulder, while in the following this aim being taken into consideration, the literary context is interwoven with
episode a conductor shakes her by the shoulder. Another example would be a the historical one, the historical context is interwoven with the intellectual one.
maple leaf drawn into the room of lovers by the wind, while in the following At the same time social trauma is represented via the prism of a private story,
episode they watch the stars falling from the sky as fallen leaves: the narrative becoming a means of creating new identity.
It may be imagined that the convergence of the narrative theory with
He held his friend by the waist, and they watched the storm clouds part, revealing the theory of trauma should become the point of further development of
stars larger than they had ever seen. And every few moments a star would slide contemporary humanitarian research. Admitting the fact that there is no
diagonally through the black sky, like a maple leaf drifting from the branch …17 narrative language of trauma as well as there is complex method of analyzing
traumatic experience, we may assume that studying it by applying the notion of
According to G. Yaropolskiy, the “White Hotel” translator, the author is a narrative figure seems promising, especially with the search for new integral
interested in a mysterious way by which one image creates another connected conceptions coinciding with the general contemporary humanitarian pursuit of
with the original one but still an independent one18. The process of creating meta analysis.
sense by analogy in a narrative sequence becomes another factor of concealing
the traumatic outcome, i.e. instead of naming a direct resource of mise en abyme, NOTES
self-reflexive elements create an allusion of cross reference to the fictional 1
Santner E. History beyond the Pleasure Principle: Thoughts on the Representation
depths of narration.
of Trauma // Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution / ed.
Thus, the model of mise en abyme representing trauma is set by the following by S. Friedländer. Cambridge, Mass., 1992. P. 143–154.
parameters:
42 43
Новый филологический вестник. 2016. №4(39).
2
LaCapra D. Writing History, Writing Trauma. Baltimore, 2001. 6. Yaropolskiy G. Postoyal’tsy otelya “Vechnost” (Zametki na polyah perevoda)
3
Felman S. Writing and Madness: Literature / Philosophy / Psychoanalysis. [Roomers of “Eternity” Hotel: Translation Marginallias]. Tomas D.M. Beliy otel’ [The
Stanford, California, 2003. White Hotel]. Saint-Petersburg, 2014, pp. 305–317. (In Russian).
4
Caruth C. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Baltimore, 7. Yaropolskiy G. Postoyal’tsy otelya “Vechnost” (Zametki na polyah perevoda)
1996. [Roomers of “Eternity” Hotel: Translation Marginallias]. Tomas D.M. Beliy otel’ [The
5
Fludernik M. An Introduction to Narratology. New York, 2009. White Hotel]. Saint-Petersburg, 2014, p. 306. (In Russian).
6
Herman D. Story Logic: Problems and Possibilities of Narrative. Lincoln, 2002.
7
Ryan M.-L. Toward a Definition of Narrative // The Cambridge Companion to (Monographs)
Narrative / ed. by D. Herman. Cambridge, UK, 2007. P. 22–35.
8
Schiffrin D. In Other Words: Variation in Reference and Narrative. Cambridge, 8. LaCapra D. Writing History, Writing Trauma. Baltimore, 2001. (In English).
UK, 2006. 9. Felman S. Writing and Madness: Literature / Philosophy / Psychoanalysis.
9
Schaeffer J.-M. Le traîtement cognitive de la narration // Narratologies Stanford, California, 2003. (In English).
contemporaines. Approches nouvelles pour la théorie et l’analyse du récit / J. Pier et 10. Caruth C. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Baltimore,
F. Berthelot (dir.). Paris, 2010. P. 215–231. 1996. (In English).
10
Derrida J. La structure, le signe et le jeu dans le discours des sciences humaines // 11. Fludernik M. An Introduction to Narratology. New York, 2009. (In English).
Derrida J. L’écriture et la différance. Paris, 1967. P. 409–429. 12. Herman D. Story Logic: Problems and Possibilities of Narrative. Lincoln,
11
Dällenbach L. Le récit spéculaire: Essai sur la mise en abyme. Paris, 1977. 2002. (In English).
12
Калинин И. Историчность травматического опыта: рутина, революция, ре- 13. Schiffrin D. In Other Words: Variation in Reference and Narrative. Cambridge,
презентация // Новое литературное обозрение. 2013. № 6. С. 18–34. UK, 2006. (In English).
13
Sarraute N. L’Ère du soupçon, essais sur le roman. Paris, 1956. P. 82. 14. Dällenbach L. Le récit spéculaire: Essai sur la mise en abyme. Paris, 1977. (In
14
Липовецкий М.Н. Паралогии: трансформации (пост)модернистского дис- French).
курса в русской культуре 1920–2000-х годов. М., 2008. С. 73. 15. Sarraute N. L’Ère du soupçon, essais sur le roman. Paris, 1956, p. 82. (In
15
Яропольский Г. Постояльцы отеля «Вечность» (Заметки на полях перево- French).
да) // Томас Д.М. Белый отель. СПб., 2014. С. 305–317. 16. Lipoveckiy M.N. Paralogii: transformatsii (post)modernistskogo diskursa v
16
Thomas D.M. The White Hotel [a novel]. [7th impr.]. London, 1981. Р. 28–29. russkoy kul’ture 1920–2000-kh godov [Paralogs: Transformations of (Post)modernist
17
Thomas D.M. The White Hotel [a novel]. [7th impr.]. London, 1981. Р. 43. Discourse in the Russian Culture of 1920–2000]. Moscow, 2008, p. 73. (In Russian).
18
Яропольский Г. Постояльцы отеля «Вечность» (Заметки на полях перево- 17. Eco U. The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts.
да) // Томас Д.М. Белый отель. СПб., 2014. С. 306. Bloomington, 1979. (In English).
19
Eco U. The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts.
Bloomington, 1979. Larissa Muravieva – lecturer at the Department of Literature and Intercultural
Communication of National Research University – Higher School of Economics,
References Nizhny Novgorod.
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межкультурной коммуникации Национального исследовательского университета
(Articles from Proceedings and Collections of Research Papers) «Высшая школа экономики» – Нижний Новгород.
Сфера научных интересов: нарратология, семиотика, романские языки, тео-
2. Santner E. History beyond the Pleasure Principle: Thoughts on the Representation рия литературы, французская теория и критика ХХ в.
of Trauma. Friedländer S. (ed.) Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the E-mail: lemuravieva@hse.ru
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4. Schaeffer J.-M. Le traîtement cognitive de la narration. Pier J., Berthelot F. (eds.)
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44 45