Document Type : Original Research Article
Authors
1
Professor in French Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2
Master Student in French Translation, French Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
Water is one of the elements of nature that exists throughout Michael Strogoff's novel. Water in various forms, such as ice in the images of a frozen river, stagnant and stinking water in the images of a swamp, etc. The main question is: what significant relationship do life-giving and stagnant waters have with the diurnal and nocturnal regimes of the imagination? To understand how sense is produced, this research aims to analyze the associative function of the double aspects of the water element in the confrontation of the main character of the story with the obstacles of the journey he has undertaken. Our hypothesis is based on the idea that as we witness the contradiction and duality of the characters from the beginning of the novel, the presence of two regimes of the imagination creates a situation appropriate to the manifestation of the different functions of the water element. In this study, through the ideas of Gaston Bachelard in the field of material imagination and the thought of Gilbert Durand in the poetic regimes of the imaginary, we seek to understand the nature of the imagination created by water in the novel Michel Strogoff by Jules Verne and to explain their semantic functions. In this regard, after having studied the imaginary functions of water in Bachelard, we will analyze the two diurnal and nocturnal regimes according to Gilbert Durand. Finally, by studying the nature of water in the descriptions and sentences taken from the novel Michel Strogoff, we attempt to decipher the semantics of this double element.
Keywords : Water, the imagination's daytime regime, the imagination's nighttime regime, Gaston Bachelard, Gilbert Durand, Michel Strogoff.
Methodology
In Bachelard's study, the moment of perception of imaginative matter is precisely the moment of inner liberation; but this change of images leads to a surprising coherence between them: "If there were no change of images, no unexpected "unity" of images, there would be no imagination and no imaginative action." (Chelebourg 2000, 38) Transformation is therefore considered a characteristic of imagination. "Imagined images transform perceived images." (Chelebourg 2000, 39) According to Gilbert Durand's imagology, dominant reactions emerge in two distinct regimes of the imaginary: "nutritional dominance" and "copulative dominance" are associated with the "nocturnal regime of the imaginary", and "positional dominance" is associated with the "diurnal regime of the imaginary".(Chelebourg 2000, 60) In the Daytime Regime, we witness conflicts born of "contradiction." However, in the Nighttime Regime, night refers to tranquility.
Background of the Study
The cyclical quality of water makes this substance life-giving. (Bachelard 1942, 22) Frozen water, itself associated with the resistance of matter, appears in various forms in Jules Verne's novel Michel Strogoff. (Verne n. d., 177-178) According to the principle of Bachelard's material imagination and the reign of imagination, "it is the matter which commands the form." (Bachelard 1942, 10) Moreover, the water of the marsh has become the refuge of "thousands of flowers" (Verne, n.d., 303), which creates a mysterious contrast. Thus, the inverted structure of the nocturnal regime refers to the structure of the group of "images of intimacy" (Chelebourg, 2000, 65).
Conclusion
Frozen water serves an essential function. In Michel's struggle against the Siberian cold, imagination is seen as a diurnal structure so that Michel's resilient spirit can have a heroic function. Even though the marsh water has lost its cyclical properties, it remains a source of life and provides a breeding ground for growth and development. The disruptive and life-giving aspects of water do not act as two opposing aspects of water to negate or suppress the other, because the life-giving nature of water remains permanent.
Keywords
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