During Gérard de Nerval’s stay in Naples, the terminus reached at the end of Voyage en Orient, the “voyage à Pompéia” plays a decisive role. In Les Filles du feu, Isis makes a “living antiquity” rise out of the ashes of Vesuvius, from which the goddess herself emerges in a mythological renewal. The story offers an initiatory passage from paganism to Christianity. Nerval proves to be superior to Madame de Staël or Dumas, but doesn’t eclipse Chateaubriand or Gautier. He uses the compendium and contaminatio as instruments.
CLIL theme: 4027 -- SCIENCES HUMAINES ET SOCIALES, LETTRES -- Lettres et Sciences du langage -- Lettres -- Etudes littéraires générales et thématiques