‘Valeur absolue’ ou ‘valeur critique’ : de la valeur en littérature selon Virginia Woolf
Résumé
According to Virginia Woolf, the art of reading consists in combining the reader’s innocent pleasure with the necessity to discriminate;it requires that we should get to terms with “the question of the book’s absolute value for us” (Essays V, 580);ultimately, it is a critical activity that teaches us how literature builds for the reader, and thanks to the reader, the understanding of what literary value is, even if the notion of “value” is never considered as a fixed, unquestioned category:“yes;there is always a reason for writing a book;and often, surprisingly often, there is something of value in it. But what, I ask myself turning the pages of the faded volume, what sort of value have they?and have they got it in common?” (Essays IV, 476). As it examines five of Woolf’s famous essays on reading, writing, and the critic’s role —“Hours in a Library” (1916), “Reading” (1919), “On Re-Reading Novels” (1922) “How Should One Read a Book?” (1926) et “Byron and Mr Briggs” —this paper follows Woolf’s personal critical itineraryfrom the library to literature, from the portrayal of the individual reader to the more theoretical notion of the “common reader”, from literary value as inevitably contingent to literature as the site of the poetic understanding and critical knowledge ofits value.
Lire, selon Woolf, c’est allier la plaisir innocent et le besoin de hiérarchiser, de discriminer;c’est apprendre à résoudre l’apparent paradoxe de «la valeur absolue qu’a pour nous un livre»—«to decide the question of the book’s absolute value for us» (Essays V, 580);c’est aussi, et l’un ne va pas sans l’autre, comprendre ce que, par l’écriture, la littérature construit d’un savoir de la valeur, tout en étant conscient que la valeur demeure, chez Woolf, l’objet d’une constante interrogation:«yes;there is always a reason for writing a book;and often, surprisingly often, there is something of value in it. But what, I ask myself turning the pages of the faded volume, what sort of value have they?and have they got it in common?(Essays IV, 476). À partir de l’étude de cinq essais portant sur la lecture, la littérature, et le rôle du critique —«Hours in a Library» (1916),«Reading» (1919), «On Re-Reading Novels» (1922,) «How Should One Read a Book?» (1926) et «Byron and Mr Briggs» —cet article propose d’explorer les trois parcours auxquels nous invite Virginia Woolf et qui nous conduisent de la bibliothèque à la littérature, de la représentation du lecteur contingent à la notion théorique de «common reader», de la contingence de la valeur (celle d’une œuvre et celle d’une lecture) à la littérature comme savoir poétique de la valeur.