see and describe on a few drawings by stendhal.pdf

8/11/2019 See and Describe On a Few Drawings by Stendhal.pdf

1/15


2/15

JACQUES LEENHARDT

See and Describe: On a Few

Drawings

by Stendhal

These

few

eflections hich should ike to

put

forward

n

the heme

ofBild und Text m Werk on

Stendhal, hoosing

heGerman

itle

n

preferenceo the FrenchTexte t

mage

for he antecedencewhich

t

confers

n

thevisual

over he

written,

ill not

ake

he

path-however

interesting-of n analysis

f

the

passage

from he

thing

een to

the

thing

written.t will not be a

question

of

Ut

picturapoesis,

nor of

ekphrasis, ut rather

f

thegesture

f

the

writer,

are

enough

o be

noticed,which onsists fnotrespectinghe eparationfgenres, nd

of

placing

ketches

ight

n the middle

fhis

text.

One

could,however,

irst

ry

o weaken his

contradiction

y

im-

ply calling

to

mind thatthe

graphics

f

Vie

de

Henry

Brulard

r of

Le

Voyage

'un touriste renever

nything

utwritten

orms

n

writ-

ten

forms,

fwhich

Stendhal

eminds

s,

in his

particular ay,

n Le

Voyage

n Francewherewe

find lone

"drawing"-that

s

to

say

lone

break

n

typographical

ontinuity.

n

fact,

t

s

not, roperlypeaking,

drawing,

ince what

we have are

etters

orming rebus,whichwas

used-we are told-as a

sign

for restaurant f

the

village

of

Les

Echelles, nd whichreads:

A

long ous

P,

G grand petit.1 Allons

ouper,'ai grand pp6tit.

Allousouper,

'ai~grand

pp/1ii

.

1. Stendhal,

oyages

n

France,

exts

dited,

refaced,

nd

annotated

yVictor el

Litto Paris:

Gallimard, La Pkiade,

1992), Voyage

n

France,

422.

YFS 84,

Boundaries: Writing

& Drawing,

ed.

M.

Reid,

C

1994by

Yale University.

81


3/15

82

Yale French tudies

Withouteaving

he

graphic rder,

tendhal

everthelessreaks

ome-

thingwhich

has

become,

over

the

course

of

centuries f

technical

improvements,

oreand

more

untouchable:

ypographicalontinu-

ity. he presence

f

rebus

without

drawing

n

Le

Voyage

n

France2

should

therefore

ake us

attentive

o the fact

hat

t

is

typographic

continuity

hich s

first

roken,

ven fmore nd

more ne

sees

a

more

radicalopposition

s

taking hape

between he

way

a

sketch s

per-

ceived,

nd

the

waywriting

s

perceived.

Let us call to

mind

an obvious fact:

reading

nd

seeing

are

not

opposed

to one another

rom he

angle

of

perception.

n the

other

hand,different

odalities are

put

to

work,

which

the

habitus

of

the

reader as crystallizedittleby ittle, otheextent hatone s always

tempted

o

oppose

civilization

f he

written o a civilization f

he

visual,

s

if

they

alled

on

differentenses.

It remains fact

hatStendhal nnovates

n

the

iterary

rderwith

the

appearance

fhis

drawings-graphics-sketches, hatever ame

they

re

given.

t

will

also doubtless e

necessary

o

distinguish

hese

terms,s

I

will show

below.

It

is perhaps mportant

o call

to mind

here

thatthe nclusion f

drawings-or f henontypographic-intoheflow f he ext,f radi-

tional n

the

sciences

or

philosophy, arely ppears

n

literature.t

occurs,

with

Stendhal, recisely

t themoment

whenthe

techniques

of

mechanical

eproduction

re on the

point

f

revolutionizingooks

andthe

press,

nd

therefore

eading.

his

chronological

oincidence

s

strongly

nderlined

y

Stendhal

n

a

few

eflections

e

delivers

n

the

question

f

echniques.

At the same moment

hat

he

is

innovating

n

literature

y

these

breaks

n

typographicalontinuity,tendhal otes

inhisJournale Paris, hattheperceptible isualuniverse, rawing

and

painting, re,

t

themoment n

history

n

whichhe

writes,

orne

alongby deadly ogic:

that fmechanical

eproduction.

am deliber-

ately sing

erms hat

bring

o

mind

he

famous

rticle f

Walter en-

jamin:

"Das

Kunstwerk

m

Zeitalter

einer echnischen

eproduzier-

barkeit,"3

or

tendhal

ad

evidently elt, century

efore

enjamin,

the

consequences, rought

bout

by

the technical

evolution,

hich

2. I

recall

hat n

Viede

Henry

rulard

ne

finds,or

xample,

notherebus,

whose

principles

different,ince

typography

nd

drawingre

combined,

he

famous ittle at

(Lancette

es tuera).

3. Cf. Walter

enjamin,

Das Kunstwerkm Zeitalter einer

echnischen

epro-

duzierbarkeit,"

n

lluminationen

Frankfurt:

hurkamp

erlag,955),

48-84.


4/15


5/15

84

Yale French tudies

claim to

fame which this son

of

an honest romantic painter from

Geneva

owes

to

his albums

on

Monsieur

Cryptogameand other

viru-

lent

charges against

the

decadent

romanticism

of the

bourgeois and

tourists,butpreciselyfor hiscritiqueof the tourist llustratedby the

Voyages n

zigzag, among

others.Whence

the

question, which I should

like to link to our theme:

why,despite

the

negative

connotations that

the

word

"tourist"

already

had

at the

time,

did

Stendhal

keep this term

in the title of

his Memoires

d'un

touriste?

The

tourist s bookish. He

travels Baedeker

in

hand,

with his head full

of

quotes

and

common-

places, the

expression "commonplaces" taking

on

special flavor n

view ofthe

tourist's

obligatory tops.

The

tourist

only

sees

what

books

pointout to him. Stendhal,who ordershim "ouvrez les yeux,cachez

les livres"

[open

your eyes,

hide the

books],

is

not far

from

thinking

that one does not

see

if one does not

see

foroneself.

Sensation

flees

when

experience

s not the result of an

availability

and

of an

aptitude

particular

o the

sensing subject.

The

conditioned

reflexes

rovokedby

bookish

knowledge

n

which

tourists

teep

themselves are

nothing

but

show:

Del Litto

quotes

the

pretty

ext

by

Nisard

on

this

subject:

For

travel uide raveller,

or

tourist,

ll

of

whose oohs and

aahs

have beenwritten own

n

advance,

uch a word s

blasphemy,

know,

ut

speakmy

mind.

The

impressions

f

thetourist re

fabricatedt the

nn,

before

eparture.

e knows

by

books

nd

by

the

hearsay

f

ourists

f

his

ilk,

what s

a

mountain,

waterfall,

lake;

he knowswhatto think nd

say

about

them;

he

has the

formula. e knowswhere

o

show

horror,urprise, elancholy;

e

keeps

supply

n his

suitcase.

Having

rrived

n front f

the

mountain,

is

guidebook

n

hand,you

will hearhim

say:

"That's t "

In front fthewaterfall:It's ustas Murray ays " nfrontfthe

lake:

"He hasn'tmisledme " What

good

s

it to

make such an effort

to

see something

hat

you

knew

lready?

V.

el

Litto,

oyages

n

France, p. cit.,xxxvii.]

Thus returns

he

question

of

why Stendhal,

on

whom

these

nega-

tive connotations could

not be

lost,

insists

nevertheless

on

using

the

term tourist. Historians

will

provide

an

answer.For

mypart,

should

only

ike to

suggest

that

his

sketches

belong

to a

strategy

f

revaloriza-

tion of the notion. There are doubtless none in Les Memoires d'un

touriste.

But,

efore nd

after,

hat s

to

say

n the

margins

of

this

work,

one does find ketches.

Everything appens

as if the sketch were

supposed

to

break the

attention

aptured y books,

typographic

ttention,

ne

might ay,


6/15

JACQUES LEENHARDT

85

whichdistances

rom he true

power

f

seeing

nd

feeling. uring

voyage,

ttention

s

more

pertinent

han

knowledge.

ttentions

an

awakening, y

the

rruption

f

the

sketch ntothe

textual

hain, nd

thewriter asperhaps ought o maintain his wakened tate, ollicit

once

again

he

magination

f

he

reader nclined o et

tself e

carried

alongby

the

written iscursive low.

But et

us look

at

some of

hese

drawings-sketches-graphics

n

order o

ascertain

what

pecifically

t s

that

hey enerate

t the

very

eart f

writing.

shall

quickly

ite

only

few

xamples.

he

first,ppearing

early

n

Stendhal's

work

I

do not aim here to

write

history

f

the

types f ketches),ates rom November 805 nddescribes visitby

Stendhal

o the

Pres

de Montfuront

fig.

).

A

summary escription

f

his ketch nables ne to

pickoutdiffer-

ent

types

fmarks.

First ne finds nalogical igns, rawings

f

trees

ufficientlyre-

cise

for

ne

to

distinguish

ifferent

pecies, waterway

hose

ebband

flow

s

made

perceptible y undulating

ines.

Perhaps

ne

can even

distinguishhadows,

r

t east

somehorizontal

trokes t the

foot

f

treewhichrepresentheground.

Then Stendhal ituates,

n this

space

rendered

rue-to-life,

ome

elementswhich

the

drawing

would

perhaps

not

have

permitted

o

identify

ith

precision. apital

etters efero

captions ccompanying

the sketch.

Furthermore,

ne notices

the indications

concerning

he

path

taken

by

the

traveller:

ourneyut, Journeyack,

Marseille.

These

signs

re sometimes

edundant,

ike the

nscription

eau

courante"

[running

ater] eduplicating

he

lready

oted ndulation.

traffics

thusestablished etween hedrawing roducinghe llusion ofreal

space,

he

graphic ituating

he

elements

n

relation

o

each

other,

he

captions

which

olve

mbiguities

r

mprecisions,

nd

the

words, uch

as

"PRES," situated

n the

same level as the

grassy urfacewhich t

designates.

Finally,

number f hese

aptions

o more

hangive nformation:

they ngage

he reader n

an

actual

story.

hus:

C.-Grandepetite iviereont esbords ont 6licieux,out ouvertsde

peupliersres rands

t

tres approch6s,omme ans out e reste

du

contour

u

champ;

'eau ourt

ssez,

lle

peut voir 2pieds e

largeur

tun

demi-pied

e

profondeur;

'ouverturen a

peut-etre

trois

ois

utant.


7/15

Age

:-

-

t

-

i

sJ-5-=.

:

rA; '

r

9

'

-

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~v~~~~~~1

~~~~~~~~~~~O-~

C

-*

Vo,

Z-4".oor`

b

C

,

-s0

-

v

e'6s

S/// I,, ,

, , _

A__

Ji 4,

/7 t ; i

f?

A.

Smallchannel.

.

Ibid,

5 feetwide, feetwide and 2 feet

fvery impid nd swift-

running ater. G. Large mallriverwhoseedges re delicious, ll coveredwithvery

tall

poplars ery

losetogether,s along herest f hefield's

dges; hewater uns

rather

uickly,

t can attain12

feet

n

width ndhalf footn depth; heopening

s

perhaps

hree imes s

deep.

D.

House

ong

nd

ow to the

ground. H. Apple

ree

(small)

nderwhichwe had unch. M. Small door peningnto field n which

there

s

a

mill.

q.

I

leave herup

to P.

86


8/15

JACQUES

LEENHARDT 87

H.-Pommier (petit)

ous

equel

nous avons

dejeune.

J.

Je

a

quitte usqu'a

P.

[Stendhal, oyages

n

France,

p. cit.,

Annexes, 93.]

The

landscape

ceases to

exist

in

itself;

it becomes the

theater of

actions

in which the traveller s inscribed

physically and

narratively.

Let

us take

a second

example:

the visit

to

the

fardin

de

Buffon

Montbard

[Garden

of Buffon

n

Montbard]

which

Stendhal

relates

in

1811. Here it is no longera

question of

a

drawing,nor does the term

"sketch"

perfectly

escribe

all

the

particularities

of what in

fact

ap-

pears

here

as

a

graphic,

or

simply

as

a

map.

The relationto the accompanyingtext also changesprofoundlyn

comparison

with the one

which

accompanies

the

drawing

of

the Pres

de Montfuront.

There numerous

captions developed into

a

descrip-

tion, perhaps they

were even

like

the

little

goose

of

a

novel

or

a

play.

Here, nothing

of

the

sort.

No

captions, except

for he

indication "Vil-

lage of Montbard, 3,000

souls" and the letter

A

which

indicates Buf-

fon's

study.

The essential

is inserted nto the

text,

which reduces the

autonomy

of

the

drawing

fig.

2).

Thecountrysideegan ochange, inally e arrived tMontbard.We

found

heportrait

fBuffonn the

home

ofour

hostess.A

girl ed us

to Buffon's

gedgardener.

his

wizenedold

fellow, inewy

nd clear-

speaking, ave

us a tour f even

r

eight

erraces

hirty

eetwide at

most.

We came to

E,

a

platform

n

the

form

f

trapezoid:

From his

platform

ne

has a

very

wide viewover he ine MM

which, nfortunately,

s formed

y parsely

wooded nd

seemingly

barren ills.As

in

the

garden, othing

n

thisview

suggests

sensuality.shared hisreflection ithM. Lecchiwhoanswered:

"Therefore

othing

an

attract

ne herebutthedesire o do

homage

to a

great

man."

For

n

Italian, ensuality

s such an

integral art

f

he dea of

beautiful

arden.

uffon's

arden

oes

not

cover

nough

round;

ut

it does tend o

inspire

n

idea of

trength

nd

magnificence.

othing

voluptuous

n

all thesewalls and

all

these

tairways;

n the

contrary,

something

ard nd

dry.

CCC are these xcessively arrow erraces; theEsplanade,which

has a

wide view from

ach of ts

three ides.L is a terrace

atewhich

led us

by

an

underground

taircase o the

Esplanade planted

with

a

blank

pace]

these

reeswith

pretty ark,

which ine thebeautiful

boulevardn

Rouen

next o the

hospital). inally

we

went

up

one


9/15

00

00

Al

v'--

-s

iltl

-~

~~

A


10/15

JACQUES

LEENHARDT

89

hundred hirty-eightteps nside

hetower

,

what

remains f

castle

of

thedukes

of

Burgundy,iven

o Buffon

y

the

King,

nd

whichhad occupied heentire urface ftheEsplanade. he

windows fthistower, ithwallsfive eet hick, nd each with

recessed ench, re ndeedGothic.

All thesedetails re from hedry nd nervous ardener. e toldus

that

n

the

family

we have titleswhich

prove

hat

his

ower

was

builtmore hannine hundred ears go." That wouldplace t

around

the

year

00.

This

man

stayed

with

Buffonor eventeen

ears.

He

saw

Jean-Jacques

neel

t

the threshold f

A,

the

tudy,

here

Buffon

was

working

n

silence.He

wouldarrive t

five

'clock,

five-fifteen

t

the

atest;

he

was

brought

read nd

a

carafe f

water

t

eleven.He

tookhisbreakfast,ame down tpreciselyne o'clock to have

lunch,

aid

nothing

o

his

guests,

went

back

up,

worked ntilfive

o'clock,

t which

ime

they

would come for

im,

nd he

relaxed

chatting

ithhis

guests.

His

gardeners

ookcareto

sweep

he eaves

from is

path.

"Therewere ix ofus then, aid the old man;

at

five 'clock, he

manservant

ame

n

and

replaced

he candles."

They

ssured

me several

imes hatBuffon

nly

worked

y

candlelight.

"Westayed wayfrom ispavilionwhenweknewhe wasthere."

There

was a

double

door;

hewindows

ave

ontothe

countryside,

across

errace

; they

re

twenty-five

r

thirty

eet bove

ground.

Nextto this errace

asses

the

roadfrom aris.

Buffon ouldcome

n

May and eave

n

September. is

landholdings

nearMontbard rought

im

around orty

housand

rancs.

I was

moved,

should

have

iked

to

stay onger.

his

severity

n work

is a lessonfor

myself.*

should

have

ikedto collect

mythoughts

and

feel he

majesty

nd

strength

hich hese

gardens

xude.

My

travellingompanions,n a hurry,id notpermitme this. Ibid.,

812-13]

The textwhich

accompanies,

or is

accompanied by, he map is the

object

of a

curious

reversal.At first

nothing

seems able to

arouse the

interestof

the

traveller.

The hills are

dull,

the

forest

hinlywooded.

The

garden

has

nothing

which

elicits

the

sensuality that a

touristfull

ofmemories of

taly expects.

The terraces re

too

narrow,

nd the

castle

destroyed. verything

s set for

disappointment,

nd

the

tourist,

with

his bookish expectations, is taken over by boredom.Perhaps, by its

sketchiness,

the

map

which we see

is the trace

of this

boredom.

*In

English

in

the

text.-Translator's

note.


11/15

90

Yale French

tudies

The narrative

everthelessrings bout

transition,rom henatu-

ral world, cantand poorly

aid

out,

which

surrounds

uffon's esi-

dence,

o thenaturalist imself. he entire

iscourse n the

garden

n

fact hiftst themomentwhenthepiety f

Rousseau,

kneeling

t

the

door f abinet

A,

whereBuffon as

working

n

silence,

s

evoked.

he

intercessor,imself

highpriest

f

nature,

wakens

eelings f

which

Stendhal

s not awareat the momenthe describes

he

site-through

the

ontemplation

f he

trength

f haracternd

work f

henatural-

ist. t s not

urprising

hat his eversal ccurs

recisely

n

referenceo

the

only aptioned

lement fthe

map,

Buffon's

tudy.

At this

point,

he

moral

portrait

as come

to

givemeaning o the

garden f tsmaster ndorganizer,pening p a newregisteror he

comprehension

f he

graphic.

he

rising

t

dawn,

he

asceticism

nd

frugality,

he withdrawalwithin he

self,

ven

when

surrounded

y

guests t

the noon

meal,

all

point

to

a

rigor

which the six

gardeners

strive

o translatento

heorder f he

garden:

His

gardeners

ook

are

to

sweep

the eaves from

is

path."

The

aesthetic

f

ensualityeading

o

ikely isappointments thus

subordinatedo

an

ethicofwork nd order.

n

ts

dryness, ure

geome-

try,ndpure mageofmastery,hegraphic aradoxically ayshomage

to

a

spiritual

irtue-here

opposed

o

sensation-,

to the

pure

orm f

a

spirit

f

order, lassicism,

nd

self-mastery.

If

thegraphic f the "Pres

de

Montfuront"

pened

nto a

country

idyllwithfruit

ie

and

thrushes

n

aspic,

hat

f

Montbard,

hereno

analogic ign

ppears

neither

mountain,

or

ree, nly

he

inesof he

map

are

readable), ccompanies

he reader

nto

a

new

experience

f

ethical motion.

"Iwasmoved, shouldhave iked ostayonger.Stendhalssumes

a role

close

to that fRousseau:the

veneration fBuffon's

trength

f

character,

s it is

expressed y

the

very

orm

f

the

garden.

hortly

before,

his

formwas

cramped

nd without

harm.

Henceforth,

he

travellereads

nother

imension here:

I

shouldhave iked

o collect

my thoughts

nd

feel the

majestic

strength

hich

these

gardens

exude.

The

graphic

f

Montbard,

y

ts technical

ualities,by

the

accent

putonform ndsign,sperhapsn elementwhichhasplayed role n

the

very

laboration f

the text.One could

magine hat,

fter

aving

conceived t as an

image ofdryness nd of

disappointed

Italian" ex-

pectations,

tendhal

himself ead

something lse there:

rigorwor-


12/15


13/15

92

Yale French tudies

2. The balconyof the palace

is held

up by.

..

(a

blank space) of

stonewhichportraysnds of

beams.

3.

I

lack thewords, o occupied mI with ensation.

The missingword

s

doubtless orbeaux,

hese orbels

whichhold

up thebalcony

nd

portray,

s is the tradition ince theMiddleAges,

the

endsofbeams.

I

should ike to suggest

hat he

apse

of

memory,

his lipwhich s

all the more nteresting

ince we knowStendhal's

ompetence

n

ar-

chitecturalmatters,

as a

close

relationship

iththe

triangle's alk-

on

part

n the

very

eart fthe

text.

The

word

which

Stendhal

acks at the momenthe

describes

he

balcony f hePalaceof run, orbeaux, ntersntophonetic esonance

with

bordeaux,

he

object

f

which

he

ought

o

speak

with

warmth

e

cannotmuster.

t s

as

if

bordeaux

oncealed orbeaux

t the

ndof n

interplayfphonetic lips

whose

equence

s enriched

y

he

pologue

on the taste

of the

shopkeepers

whom

a house "covered

with

forty-

franc

ieces"

would

fascinate. hese amateurswith

pervertedaste,

adorers ot

of art

but

of the veau d'or

golden

alf],

f the

beau

d'or

[beauty

f

gold],provide

Stendhalwith

a

play

on

approximations

which eadstoBordeaux.Theprohibition hichweighs ntheword

Bordeaux nd which

s set

up by

the

apologueexplains,

n

the final

analysis,

he

"forgetting"

f he

word

corbeaux." he

oddities

f

his

passage

herefore

nd

up taking

n

meaning,

nd

everythingappens

s

if,

t the

end of

triangularourney

etween

ordeaux,

eau

d'or,

nd

corbeaux,

hefirstword

had hidden he

ast.

If hat

were

o-which

I am

wary

f

sserting,

ontent,

n

therealm

of he

subconscious,

with

proposing hypothesis-,

the

drawn

rian-

gle,whichthepictured edundancyfthealreadywritten ord nly

rendersmore

strange,

s

perhaps way

of

visualizing

he

system

f

permutation

f the consonants

n

the three

words

urrounding

he

absent corbeau." tendhal's

onfusion,

nderlined

y

he

provocative

and

repeated

ffirmation

hathe is a bad

Frenchman,erhapsustifies

boththe

forgetting

f a word

nd the

wandering

f the mind

which

hooksdeformed

quivalents

nto hebeau d'or

of

hePhilistine

hop-

keepers,

mateur

upporters

ftheTheater

f

Bordeaux.

The importancef sketches-neither rawings,orgraphics, or

maps-,

such

as this

riangle,

eems

ll the

greater,even

f

t s

partic-

ularly angerous

o

place nterpretations

n this

haky round),

ince

number

f themremain

trictly nigmatic.

uch

sketches,

t

seems,

defy xplanation.Why

did

Stendhal

eelthe need to add

them o his


14/15

JACQUES LEENHARDT 93

textwhen

they eem

neither o

complete

he

nformationor

clarify

points

f

knowledge?

heir

pproximate

haracter,

n

any

ase,

renders

them nsuitable

or

upporting nowledge,

ave

perhaps

memory.

One mustthen magine completely ifferentunction or hem,

free

rom he

pedanticprecision orwhich Stendhal

eproached

e-

rimee

o often.

his precision

s,rather, product

f he

working f he

imagination.

am

speaking

here

of those sketches

fromwhich

all

general

opographical

r

architecturaleferences ave

been

removed.

Only sign

emains,

column

or

frontispiece.

pparently,

he

mag-

ination houldnot

needthese igns

n

order o

sustainwithin tself he

image

of a

triangle

r ofa

"veryhighcolumn,"

Colonne

fort

levee]

(Ibid., 17);all themore o that hedrawingfthis ast temdoes not

picture

t

as

high

t

all.

And

yet

these

drawings

ntervene

nigmatically

n

the

middleof

thetext,whence

one

must

readily

oncede

hat t is

the

rupture hat

they mpose

n the

extwhich s

important,

ndnot

what

hey ortray.

Indeed, y

nterrupting

he

flow

f

discourse,

he ketch

uts

he ensi-

bility

ack

t theheart f

understanding.

s if o

reassure imself

hat

it

was, ndeed, he column

he

saw which

gave

him

the

trongmpres-

sion ofheight,nd not someCorinthian-styleolumnpicturedn all

guidebooks,

tendhal

nterrupts

iscoursewith

mage.

The

ntelligible

flow tops

nd the

magination

orms n

image

which hehand

tran-

scribes

mmediately

nto

the

page.

should

ike,

n

referenceo

Kant,

to

call such

mages

monograms-i.e.,

visualforms

uited o the

mag-

ination

s a

faculty.

Within hisdrawn

orm,

nd

through

his

mono-

grammatic

orm,

hat

articular

ensation,

elt n one

27

March

1838,

is

linked

with

ll the

perceptions

ummed

p

n

the

concept

f

Corin-

thian olumn.

So togobeyondhetourist uideorto nterrupttsdiscursivelow,

is,

for

Stendhal,

o affirmhe

specificity,

nd

the

primacy,

f

one's

sensibility

o a

work. t

s,

to borrow he

erms sed

by

Roland

Barthes,

to

prefer unctum

o studium.The sketch-I

speak

hereof the

one

which

akes heform f

monogram-is,

n a

way,

he

race f

his;

t

s

that

mage

which

s

created t

the

pivotalpoint

between

nderstand-

ing-that

is

to

say

concepts-and

sensibility,

he

image-concept

which,

ccording

o

Kant,

s

the

only

ne

capable

f

inking

particular

experienceoconceptual enerality,ensation odiscourse.

To

assert

that these

mysterious

ketches

of

Stendhal

re mono-

grams,

n

that ense which

Kant

gives

o the

notion

n

his

chapter

n

transcendental

chematicism,

s to set

oneself

he

taskof

putting

en-


15/15

94 Yale

French

tudies

sationback ntotheheart fthe

cognitive

mechanism,

s

required

y

Stendhal: I lack the

words,

am so

occupied

y

ensation."

Occupied,

here,means

possessed,

nvaded. Now

if

Kant has

placed

the

mono-

gram t the uncture etween hevisual mage ndthediscursive,t s

precisely

ecause

he

could

not avoid

taking

nto

account he

nsuffi-

ciency f anguage o be

always

n

afterthought

f

ensation, s

Rous-

seau had postulated. hus the

place

he

reserves or

magination,

t

the

veryheart

of the

Analytique

transcendentale,

ears

witness

to

his

concernwith

ynthesis

nd,

t the same

time,

with he

position hat

the

mage-concept,

he

monogram,

must

play

n

this

ynthesis.

These few

emarks

nspired

y

Stendhal's ketches

hus

im,

mod-

estly, o point o the xistence f his amequestforynthesisetween

imagination nd

understanding,

onogram

nd

concept,

n

the

de-

scription

f

objects

which et one's

sensibility

n

motion.

The construction

f

Stendhal's

ext,

nsofar s this

construction

puts

nto

playpictures,

rawings,raphics, tc.,

ends,

n

myopinion,

to

preserve,

n

the

evelof

eading,

n awakened

ensibility,nd,

n

the

cognitive

evel,

the

possibility

or he

imagination

o

carry

ut the

synthesis etween

ensibility's

xcitementnd

understanding'sapac-

itytoprovidetselfwitha universalizable orm f this ndiscourse.

-Translated

by John

hompson

see and describe on a few drawings by stendhal.pdf

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