Information about the author:
Ekaterina E. Dmitrieva
Ekaterina E. Dmitrieva, DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia; Professor, Russian State University for the Humanities, Miusskaya 6, 125993 Moscow, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9692-8329
E-mail:
Acknowledgements:
The research was carried out in IWL RAS with the support of the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-18-00051, Available at: https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00051/).
Abstract:
This article deals with the history of the urban estate of Pierre Loti in Rochefort, a writer whose name is inseparably linked to the history of exoticism in French literature. Its creation is an example of the fusion of architectural and literary intentions, like Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill, Walter Scott’s Abbotsford and Alexandre Dumas’ Le Château de Monte-Cristo. Unlike these authors, for Loti, the estate was a sublimation of what he felt he was unable to express in his work. The exotic decoration of the villa contributed to Loti’s passion for life-making, turning his own life into a theatrical stage. But at the same time, the interior decoration of the villa, which allowed the writer to connect times, contributed to Loti’s attempts to overcome the fear of death, which had haunted him since his youth. The article describes in detail one of the festivities Loti hosted in his own home, the Louis XI Dinner.
