Doctoral defence: Marit Karelson „Le Temps d’engagement dans les œuvres d’André Gide et de Johannes Semper: les univers fictionnels entre l’élan vital et la littérature engagée“

On 17 November at 12:00, Marit Karelson will defend her doctoral thesis „Le Temps d’engagement dans les œuvres d’André Gide et de Johannes Semper: les univers fictionnels entre l’élan vital et la littérature engagée“.

Supervisor:
Tanel Lepsoo

Opponents:
Jean-Michel Wittmann, Lorraine’i ülikooli professor
Kaia Sisask, Tallinna ülikooli dotsent

Summary
The thesis explores the literary works of André Gide (1869-1951) and Johannes Semper (1892-1970) with a specific aim to analyse time in their fictional worlds. The concept of time is examined through the essays of Gide and Semper as well as through the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Henri Bergson, Paul Ricœur, and Jacques Noiray. Inspired by Sartre’s idea of “committed writing”, I have developed the concept of “committed time” for analysing the works of Gide and Semper. The term refers to the active role of a writer in attempting to bring about societal change.

In the fictional worlds of Semper and Gide, time represents the plurality of an individual’s consciousness. In the works of both authors, time emerges when the bodies of the characters constitute images which can be presented as outside themselves. Consequently, the characters become “others” – those that they are not. I analyse these images through Sartre’s concept of “possibility”, which refers to the idea that individuals possess the capacity to imagine the future as being outside the present. The images of “possibility” in Gide's works reveal a gradual transformation of time into action, represented by a progressive falling apart of a recognizable temporal structure. In Semper's work, the bodies of characters not only exist outside their own selves but also form a network of interconnected “possibilities” with other juxtaposed bodies. Semper's prose, more explicitly than Gide's, portrays the continual development of the fictional world as a plural organism characterized by Bergson’s concepts of “duration” and “élan vital.” The development of the network of characters in the works of Gide and Semper reflects the idea of societal progress and highlights the conviction of the two authors regarding the pivotal role of individuals’ actions in shaping society.