L’esthétique de l’inattendu dans les Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon. Bilan et perspectives d'une enquête orlandienne sur les « Mémoires »

This article offers a summary of my doctoral research on Louis de Saint-Simon’s Mémoires and an essay of retrospective assessment of its main theoretical and methodological enjeux. Few studies have attempted at a comprehensive interpretation of Saint-Simon’s memorialistic masterpiece, even fewer focus on its astonishing pluralism in style and composition from a high level of synthesis: these were nonetheless the challenges I addressed when undertaking a thorough reading and a sample, empirical analysis of the text under the light of Francesco Orlando’s literary theory and method. Such an endeavor resulted in many fruitful interpretative insights on the role of the unexpected in the duke’s chronicle, which raise at the same time some questions about Orlando’s theory itself and the limits of applicability of his method to factual writings.