Balzac and a Christian Narrative Model: A Message for Modern France

Authors

Morgan Dennis, Brigham Young University
Dr. Scott Sprenger, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Honoré de Balzac, Christian narrative model, modern France

College

Humanities

Department

French and Italian

Abstract

Honoré de Balzac was one of the most prolific French authors in the 19th century, and scholars around the world publish numerous articles and books about his enormous collection of novels (known as La Comédie Humaine) every year. Despite the fact that religious symbols, references, and images abound through Balzac’s fiction and non-fiction writings, the religious dimension of his novels has largely been ignored because of the secular state of much of modern academics today. When I learned this in Dr. Scott Sprenger’s class during the winter semester of 2008 as we read several of Balzac’s novels, I decided to focus my term paper on the influence of Christianity on Balzac’s writings. After completing the paper, we decided there was much more study and analysis that could be done, and Dr. Sprenger agreed to help me expand the paper into an honors thesis.

Recommended Citation

Dennis, Morgan and Sprenger, Dr. Scott (2013) "Balzac and a Christian Narrative Model: A Message for Modern France," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 779.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/779