Writing, disappointing: the romantic cliché in André Gide's L'Immoraliste

• Grant number: 12/12815-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Verónica Galíndez
• Grantee: Bruna de Carvalho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Based on the reading of André Gide's L'Immoraliste, this project proposes an investigation concerning the use of romantic cliché in the characterization of Marceline, Michel's (the narrative's protagonist) wife. The research seeks to show how, in the indicated work, the identification of cliché cannot lead to a reading which would presume the author's submission to commonplace: instead, it deals about its theatrical application, which wears the mask as it reveals its artifice; this movement is enough to silence any petrified discourse. Therefore, the project itself is based on the hypothesis that the use of clichés, instead of standing on the non-reflected application of commonsense, puts them into play. We suppose that the specific study of this mechanism can drive us to the reading of this work under an unexplored perspective by critics.