Éléments pour une noétique du roman

While narratology claims to reveal the nature of the structures of storytelling, Vincent Descombes, in his book on Proust, argues that a proper science of literature should emphasize the specific way in which each genre produces meaning. This paper contents for a “noetic” approach of genres. In an attempt to overcome the opposition between semiotics and hermeneutics, I am considering the way symbolic structures create specific modes of thought. The fathers of narratology pretended to tackle fiction. But using their tools shows the operation of diachronic and synchronic syntheses that specifically characterize the novel. Beyond this analysis, noetics also provide phenomenological interpretation of semiotic structures. It reveals that the thinking process of the novel fall under what Hegel call the experience of consciousness.