The Analysis of Romanticism in Bonjour Tristesse Romance by
Françoise Sagan
Zena Fitria
Postgraduate of French Language Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Stiabudhi No. 229, Bandung,
Indonesia
zenafitria17@gmail.com
Keywords: Language Learning, Romance Literature, Romanticism.
Abstract: This research aims to analyze and describe the characteristics of romanticism that appeared in Bonjour
Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954), and also to analyze and describe the element of romanticism in the
main character. Researchers have made efforts in finding the meaning, value and essence of the literary
works that were read by examining its intrinsic elements. The method used in this research was qualitative
method with descriptive analysis design. The population taken and the samples studied were elements of
intrinsic and those related to the characteristics of romanticism. The sample was analyzed by using
structural method. The data from the research showed that Bonjour Tristesse contains romanticism values
with characteristic as follows: Le Mal du Siècle, Culte du Moi, Révolte Romantique. The result of this study
can be used as reference materials for learning foreign languages through romance, used as one of learning
materials in French language, and other researchers could do further research on romanticism towards other
literary genres.
1 INTRODUCTION
Romance is a literature that is appropriate to be used
as a medium of language learning because romance
is a medium of communication between the writer
and the reader, and sentences used are effective in
delivering the message. If learners has been able to
understand the context and meaning of a sentence,
then the message in romance would be able to be
understood well, therefore the language ability of
learners may improve as well.
One of the most notable romance that is suitable
as a medium of language learning is Bonjour
Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954). Sagan is a
French novelist that has received the award of Prix
De La Foundation from Prince Pierre de Monaco for
all of his creations. Bonjour Tristesse was his first
novel and right away became best-seller and has
been awarded Prix Des Critiques in 1954. This
novel has become a classic that continued to be read
and for numerous times has been adapted as a film
produced by Columbia Picture in 1958.
Bonjour Tristesse has a theme that focuses on
feelings or emotions and accentuates individual roles
where this is related to the characteristic of
romanticism as a current of literature. Romanticism
current itself is a current that has brought French
Literature to its peak of glory in the XIX century.
Van-Tieghem (1948) in his book Romantisme
dans la Litterature Europeenne states that romantic
romance accentuates lyrics or expression of feeling.
Sentimentality is often discovered in love stories that
end tragically, touching, and even in tears. Self-
worship shows from the attention of romantic
characters to their inner suffering and the tendency
of isolation. Mentioned self-worship is the
Romantics’ effort to self-express or others as an
individual, and generally used is the “I” as a proof
(Echelard, 1984).
As one of romantic works, a romance must
contain moral teachings, but not always stated
through events, but must appear from the state of
feelings of the characters in the story (Van-Tieghem,
1948).
This research is an analysis that is certainly
important in enriching French literary criticism. In
this case, the analysis describes the elements of
romance contained in French novels, where we can
understand more deeply in one of the genres in
literatures which is complex and there are many
observers who provide a formula for romanticism.
This research is also to describe the forms of
Fitria, Z.
The Analysis of Romanticism in Bonjour Tristesse Romance by Françoise Sagan.
DOI: 10.5220/0007171906150617
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 615-617
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
615
romanticism in the novel “Bonjour Tristesse” by
Francoise Sagan (1954).
2 METHODS
The method used in this research was qualitative
method with descriptive analysis design. The sample
was analyzed by using structural method. The
technique being used is literature review and data
analysis. The population and sample used is Bonjour
Tristesse by Françoise Sagan that amounts to 154
pages published in 1954, and intrinsic elements that
is included in the characteristics of romanticism.
Apart from the writer, instruments being used is
a data framework from the analysis result in the
form of a table (see table 1). Researcher used the
theory cited from the book Semiotique du Recit by
Nicole Evaraert-Desmedt (1989), this theory is used
to compile the storyline in a narrative text. In
analyzing romanticism element in the storyline and
main characters, researcher used the theory Le mal
du siècle by Lagarde and Michard in the book titled
VIIIe Siecle and XIXe Siecle, and theory Culte du
moi and Révole Romantique by Henri Benac (1974)
in his book titled Guides des Idees Litteraires
Francaises.
Table 1: Elements of Romanticism.
Episode “…”
Mal du
Siècle
Culte du
Moi
Révolte
Romantique
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the analysis result, the main topic that is
shown is stated explicitly and the message
implicitly. This is shown with the presence of central
conflict in the main story the main character is
facing.
The sequence of events happened linearly with
the social background of the bourgeoisie. Through
the mind of the main character, the events are sorted
chronologically. The storyline consists several turn
of events which is Successive Transformations: a
story doesn’t consist of general changes, but the
continuation of changes, situation that is caused by
first changes that is a new beginning, which emerges
further changes.
The plot and the character are obviously related
because they give the information of the situation as
how it is, projecting the mental state of the character,
creating certain atmosphere, and as well as creating
contrast. So that theory of paradigmatic relation is
relevant, where the relation between elements in text
is not bound by causality, but is a concept which
spreads in the story that completes each other. The
storyline is as well dominated by the thoughts of the
main character, so the point of view is important,
because it could add to the understanding of the
events that the main character has experienced.
The literature current of romanticism is a kind of
sadness, le mal du siècle strengthen by the desire of
love and a desire to emphasise ‘I’. The definition of
Le mal du siècle here is ennui (boredom); inquiétude
(worries); désespérance (desperation), which shown
explicitly in le mal de René in Chateubriand’s René
(Lagarde and Michard, 1969). Mentioned
imagination and feeling are shown with lyrics
personnel. Other than that is inspired as well by
l’exaltation du moi (self-worship), l’exaltation
inquiète et orgueilleuse dans le «vague des
passions» (worship that shows anxiety and
arrogance in «vague des passions») et le mal du
siècle (Lagarde and Michard, 1969). The result of
data analysis of Mal du siècle is as seen on Table 2.
Table 2: Result of data analysis of Mal du Siècle.
Episode 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.
The main character of the romantic romance is
often called héros romantique. According to Benac
(1974) in his book Guides des Idées Littéraires
Françaises, in the soul of a romantic character, there
is sentiment du moi (Sentiment of « me »), which is
behaviour and actions advantaging oneself, which is
famously called culte du moi (self-worship). Then,
the existence of révolte or rebellion done to fight
against all laws that interfere desires. Brunel (1972)
stated in his book L’Histoire de la Littérature
Françaises that romantic character lives isolated
from the people, object of a poor destiny, possessing
uncontrollable lust of love, always anxious, worry,
and possessing extraordinary hatred (Brunel, 1972).
Table 3: Analysis Result of Data Culte du Moi.
Episode 6, 7, 8, 11, 15.
Culte du Moi
(1) p. 67, (2) p. 71, (3) p. 72, (4) p. 80, (5) p.
81, (6) p. 82, (7) p. 85, (8) p. 109, (9) p. 135.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
616
Related with culte du moi and vague des
passions a famous romantic character as a character
who is persistent in preserve and strive for desire
despite the problems (see table 3 for detail result).
Therefore happens révolte or rebellion which is
famous for the name révolte romantique (see table 4
for detail result). The romantic character is selfish
and not afraid of breaking laws, it is caused by the
lust consuming the main character and tendency of
self-worship.
Table 4: Results of Data Analysis of Révolte Romantique.
Episode 8, 11, 15.
Révolte Romantique
(1) p. 82, (2) p. 106, (3) p. 107, (4) p.
137.
From the two atmospheres in this roman, happy
atmosphere and sad atmosphere, sad atmosphere is
the most emphasised by the writer in order to engage
readers to feel what is felt, experienced, seen, and
thought by the character, then the writer chooses the
emphasis of ”I”. Therefore, researcher was able to
conclude that the emphasis of the main character as
someone or an individual is an embodiment of self-
worship or l’exaltation du moi which is a
characteristic of romanticism.
Other characteristic of romanticism is the
presence of a young male character with a
sentimental and anxious temperament. Other than
that is also the presence of a noble-hearted young
male character because of the passion and great
mind to help the weak. Other characteristic of
romanticism is seen on the presence of a young
female character with a low social background. In
this romance, there is also a tragic ending which is a
characteristic of romanticism. Furthermore, there is
a presence of a character with a tendency of living
alone.
The main character is an object of a hapless
destiny, always anxious, excessive worrying which
makes him possessing inner turmoil and excessive
hatred. All expression of feelings that are heart
breaking as shown above shows how dominating the
self-worship is. The hapless me, the anxious me, the
worried me, the restless me, etc.
4 CONCLUSIONS
It can be stated that Bonjour Tristesse has the
characteristics of romanticism. The characteristics of
romanticism is strongly reflected, among others: The
character has a trait in accordance with Mal du
Siècle. Those feelings appear for numerous times.
The next characteristic of romanticism is Culte du
Moi, in the whole story, those feelings are always
found. In this character, there is also révolte
romantique and in expressing his feelings, the main
character really emphasis egocentricity, so that
readers could feel the sense of subjectivity in the
character. The emphasis of main character as
someone or an individual shows the presence of self-
worship or L’exaltation du Moi which is also a
characteristic of romanticism.
This romance is able to be used as a material in a
learning process of language by appreciating it like
reading and understanding the content of the story,
then answering questions which has relation with the
content of the romance. Learners could develop
interest in reading through the reading medium of
romance. In addition to deeply understanding
romance, the learners could add vocabularies and
make romance as the object of analysis in education.
The teachers could use romance as a teaching
alternative.
This research only focuses the analysis on
intrinsic elements, romanticism characteristics and
elements of romanticism in the romance Bonjour
Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954). Other readers
could do a research using similar techniques in other
romanticism romance, as well as other literature
works in order to expand knowledge and
understanding of the technique.
REFERENCES
Benac, H., 1974. Guides des Idées Littéraires Françaises,
Libraire Hachette. Paris.
Brunel, P., 1972. L’Histoire de la Littérature Françaises,
Bordas. Paris.
Echelard, M., 1984. Histoire de la Littérature en France
au XIXe Siècle, Hatier. Paris.
Evaraert-Desmedt, N., 1989. Sémiotique du Récit, Boeck
Université. Paris.
Lagarde, A., Michard, L., 1969. VIIIe Siècle, Bordas.
Paris.
Sagan, F., 1954. Bonjour Tristesse, Julliard.
Van-Tieghem, P., 1948. Le Romantisme dans la
Littérature Européenne, Editions Albin Michel. Paris.
The Analysis of Romanticism in Bonjour Tristesse Romance by Françoise Sagan
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