Abstract
Unlike his more cynical fin de siecle peers, medievalist, translator, and conteur Marcel Schwob assigns a moral and aesthetic value to his literary work. In the preface to Coeur double (1891), Schwob's inaugural collection, he describes human history and the evolution of individuals as a journey that starts out from the haven of self- interest and concludes with the arrival at a capacity for empathy. Like his tales, which often chronicle a quest or a crusade, the evolution of Schwob's characters, which also models that of readers, is represented spatially by the perilous itinerary that charts a trip from sanctuary toward a beckoning Jerusalem, a promised land where others are as important as the self. The text is what establishes an awareness of the distance between the home of selfishness and the destination of "charité": "Ainsi l'âme va d'un extrême à l'autre, de l'expansion de sa propre vie à l'expansion de la vie de tous" (Preface, Coeur double VII).
Recommended Citation
Ziegler, Robert
(1995)
"Creation and Transformation in Marcel Schwob's L'Etoile de bois,"
University of Dayton Review: Vol. 23:
No.
2, Article 11.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udr/vol23/iss2/11
