MÉMOIRES D’HADRIEN DE MARGUERITE YOURCENAR : ENTRE AUTOBIOGRAPHIE FICTIVE ET ÉCRITURE DE L’HISTOIRE

Abstract

The current paper focuses on the literary mechanisms that Marguerite Yourcenar used to (re)construct the historical personality of the Roman emperor Hadrian in the fictional autobiography, Memoirs of Hadrian. We analyze how M. Yourcenar represents an effort to reconstruct a historical period and a historical personality through the intersection of true events and fiction in the form of a fictional autobiography, supported by documentary work, in this particular novel. Hadrian’s imaginary letter to his protégé and student, the future emperor Marcus Aurelius, is not only a writing of ancient history, but also a modern chronicle of one man’s efforts to free himself from the constraints of human destiny. The mechanisms of writing a memoir provide the main character with the opportunity to (re)write History, his personal biography. Different narrative forms (“I”, “he”, “we”) allow the author of the novel not only to give voice to the main character, but also to follow the development of the initial intention - from writing a letter to his heir to thinking about existence, i.e. from the individual to the general plan of humanity. Therefore, through the reconstruction of Hadrian’s life and his age, we show that Marguerite Yourcenar’s ambition is not only to illuminate the gallery of masks of a powerful historical figure, but also to overcome them and to capture in words the fragility of a man who enters death with his eyes open.