RECONSTRUCTION OF HISTORICITY AND IMAGERY IN THE NOVEL “CHRONICLE OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES IX”

Abstract

In this article, the author scientifically analyzes and substantiates the historical and poetic features of the novel by the French writer Prosper Merimee “Chronicle of the reign of Charles IX”. The choice of topic was, and in this case, internally connected with the acute, exciting problems of our time. The impetus for the emergence of the Jacquerie idea was the liberation struggle of the masses during the years of the Restoration regime. In the “Chronicle”, Merimee depicts the social unrest unleashed by the ruling elite. This topic sounded no less topical in France in the late 20s of the XIX century. However, it would be a mistake to look in the Chronicle for straightforward analogies between the political struggle of the Restoration era and the historical reality of the 16th century. Comprehending the events of the distant past, Merimee did not adjust them to the present, but sought in them the key to the laws of the era that interested him, and thereby to the discovery of broader historical generalizations.