Le sentiment de l’intermittence

Abstract

EnglishNovels of the 1920s abound in scenes in which the character (or the narrator) is confronted with an abrupt transformation of time and of what links him to it : instead of appearing in its continuity, time exposes itself in the form of contiguity and intermittency, the character being then not any longer brought away by time but rather placed in front of it as if he were watching its performance. This article proposes to show how these scenes emblematically stand for how the interwar years made themselves and thought themselves as an epoch. francaisLe roman des annees 1920 a multiplie les scenes dans lesquelles le person-nage (ou le narrateur) se voit confronte a une transformation abrupte du temps et de ce qui l’y rattache : plutot que d’apparaitre dans sa continuite, le temps s’offre sous la forme de la contiguite et de l’intermittence, le personnage se trouvant alors non plus emporte par le temps, mais place face a lui, comme s’il en regardait le spectacle. Cet article propose de voir comment ces scenes emblematisent la maniere dont la periode de l’entre-deux-guerres s’est eprouvee et pensee comme epoque.