Colette, a literary symphony: when writing becomes music

Audrey Coudevylle, senior lecturer in XXᵉ century literature and cantology, explores a little-known aspect of Colette's work in her research: the sonic dimension. A specialist in French chanson and women's voices, she reveals how the author transformed sounds, voices and melodies into a literary language in their own right. Her approach, at the crossroads of literature and music, offers a new key to understanding Colette's universe, where every word seems to resonate like a note.

Immerse yourself in Colette's world of sound

Colette, often celebrated for her sharp look at the female condition, was also immersed in a musical universe. Her music-loving parents gave her a thorough musical education, and she herself was a talented pianist, although she never flaunted it. But it is above all in her writing that the music resonates. As Audrey Coudevylle points out,Colette describes her loved ones through their voices: Sido, her mother, is endowed with a "nuanced soprano voice", while her father, a great lover of song, is evoked through his melodies. Even the animals in her stories seem to have a voice of their own, translated into sound by the author's pen.

This attention to sound reminiscences is not insignificant. At a time when audio recording was still in its infancy (the first recorded discs were marketed around 1904-1908, but remained rare), Colette used writing to make heardwhat could not be captured. In La Vagabonde or L'Envers du music-hall, she transcribes with precision the grain of voices, tessituras, intonations, as if to fix in time ephemeral sounds. For Audrey Coudevylle, this approach is part of a quest for truth: "The voice can't hide anything," she reminds us, citing psychology. In describing the voices of her characters, Colette seeks to capture their most intimate essence.

An innovative methodology: listening to literature

To analyze this sonic dimension, Audrey Coudevylle has adopted a pluridisciplinary methodology. She combines a close reading of Colette's texts with stylistic listening: she spots passages evoking voice or song, then analyzes their rhythm, their play on sound, their repetitions. The goal? Understand how Colette uses sound tocharacterize her characters or express their emotions.

For example, in L'Envers du music-hall, Colette depicts the world of music-hall performers from backstage, far from the glitz. To capture the reality of these lives, she transcribes theirway of speaking, their accents, their speech tics. The voice thus becomes a tool of literary realism, a way of giving to see - or rather to hear - the truth of her subjects.

This approach is all the more original in that it fills a gap in studies of Colette. As Audrey Coudevylle notes, "We've done a lot of work on Colette's gaze, her taste. But what has been neglected is that which relates to sounds." Her work thus offers a new entry into the work, a way of reading it - or rather, listening to it - from a novel angle.

Audrey Coudevylle is a lecturer in twentieth-century literature and cantology (studies of the chanson genre). A specialist in French chanson (from the Belle Époque to the present day) and chanson réaliste (Fréhel), she is broadening her research to include the voices, writings and figures of women in literature on an emancipatory path (from Christine de Pizan to Colette and Lola Laffon). In parallel with her research, in 2019 she is creating a poetic and musical show, Et la Femme créa Baudelaire, dedicated to the poet and his relationship with his mother, as with his principal muses.

Why did Colette write so few songs?

In the course of her music-hall career, Colette rubbed shoulders with a host of French chanson stars of the Belle Époque and inter-war years (Fréhel, Maurice Chevalier, Marie Dubas etc.) Mistinguett' owes her a fine tribute article. What's less well known is that Colette was also a lyricist! We owe her three songs, or rather three poems set to music. One of them, Mon âne, was performed by Tino Rossi himself. Nevertheless, Colette always preferred traditional, country songs to those of the music hall. This would explain why, even though she loved short forms of writing (like chanson) and needed money, Colette didn't turn more to this genre.

Other hypotheses can be put forward.

First, a cultural nobism: coming from a family of intellectuals, Colette was immersed in classical music. Her first husband, Willy, was a music critic, and she herself wrote reviews of classical concerts. Song, perceived as a
"popular" and "easy" art form "popular" and "easy", might have seemed unworthy of her talent.

Then, like her friend Jean Cocteau, who had an ambiguous discourse on song (he appreciated certain "intellectual" singers, but rejected popular song, which he described as a "cancer"), Colette surely cultivated a form of condescension peculiar to the intellectuals of her time towards a genre then considered minor. This would explain why she never fully committed herself to the genre.

An invitation to listen to Colette again

Audrey Coudevylle's study doesn't just analyze the past: it also proposes a new way of reading Colette today. By paying attention to the sounds, voices and musicalities of her texts, readers can discover an additional dimension to her work. As Audrey Coudevylle suggests, "it's a matter of rereading the extracts in the light of this new perspective to better apprehend the work."

His article, published in the magazine Europe, is part of an accessibility approach. Frédéric Maget, a Colette specialist and former director of the Maison Colette, asked her to contribute to a collective issue, with the brief of remaining accessible to an informed, but not exclusively academic, audience. The aim? To share this passion for Colette's sounds with as many people as possible.

Audrey Coudevylle's work reminds us that literature is not just about words: it can also be an auditory experience. Colette, by integrating sounds into her writing, created a work in which every sentence sounds like a melody. What if we took the time to listen to her?

> Learn more about Audrey Coudevylle