Fragment et autobiographie dans l'œuvre de Ballanche: étude et textes inédits

The autobiographical Fragments (1808-09) occupy a marginal but essential place in the work of Ballanche (1776-1847). He considered his Œuvres a theoretical totality, yet always included in them this group of broken, intimate writings. Ballanche's autobiographical work is thus related to, but not identical to, the fragment as form. The Fragments represent a ruin, that of the author's life, but this ruin is the source of the doctrines expounded in the Œuvres, just as for Ballanche the ruins of ancient poetry and the Old Regime are the source of social doctrines needed to reconcile post-Revolutionary society. (In French) (WRP)