History's Waterloo: Prediction in La Chartreuse de Parme

The predictions of La Chartreuse de Parme are not simply evidence of a residual romance structure, or romantic aspects of Stendhal's writing, but signal a major shift in conceptions of history and historical discourse in the aftermath of Waterloo. The striking difference between the first prediction of Napoleon's stay in Italy and the second of Fabrice's fate becomes a reflection on the status of history, historical reconstruction, and the problem of understanding the recent past. The crucial second prediction in the bell-tower demonstrates the dangerous means by which the past falls prey to discursive fabrication. (KG)