Les chefs-d’œuvre inconnus : une étude des œuvres fictives dans La Comédie humaine.

This study comprises an analysis of fictive works in Balzac’s La Comédie humaine. Using a range of theoretical approaches which include narratology, theory of reception, theory of possible texts and critical reading, the study focuses on identification and scrutiny of functions and implications of works created by the characters of Balzac’s novels and short stories. It studies the fragmented and disjointed nature of these books within books and investigates the narrative strategies employed by the author to insert these fictive works into the text. Furthermore, this study explores the role played by these fictive works in the consolidation of the paradoxical unity of La Comédie humaine by examining how these fragmented texts contribute towards the creation of a system and totality in a heterogeneous literary work composed of a multitude of interlinked texts. Lastly, this study aims to understand and articulate this paradoxical unity of Balzac’s work, and how it constructs itself from fragmentations and silences intrinsic to La Comédie humaine. While the study primarily analyses the textual fictive works in the following novels: La Muse du département, Illusions perdues, Louis Lambert, Modeste Mignon, L’Envers de l’histoire contemporaine, and Les Comédiens sans le savoir, it focuses on determining the significance of the presence of fictive works in the entirety of La Comédie humaine.