Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Entre diatribe et allégorisme satirique: l’affaire Dreyfus dans “Le Jardin des supplices” et “Le Journal d’une femme de chambre”

2018; Rosenberg & Sellier; Issue: 185 (LXII | II) Linguagem: Inglês

10.4000/studifrancesi.12553

2421-5856

Pierre Glaudes,

Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research

Written in the sizzling atmosphere of the Dreyfus Affair, Le Jardin des supplices and Le Journal d'une femme de chambre mark a step toward satire in Mirbeau's novels. Diatribes take more and more space, and the traditional themes of initiation and voyage are woven into allegories on the dangers of anti-Dreyfusardism: the aggravation of violence and the acceptance of cynicism. Yet Mirbeau's hate for anti-Semites and the sarcasms he piles upon them can seem, at a certain level, turned against himself, who was ferociously anti-Semitic at the time he published the weekly «Les Grimaces». His novels are tinged with cruel irony, for they betray his feelings of guilt; the odious anti-Dreyfusard characters who serve as foil to his ideals of justice and freedom also represent his past self – a past self who still lurks inside him, threatening to take over. The present Mirbeau is a just man, but one very aware of his flaws; he knows we all nurse feelings of hate for who is not like us, and that those feelings are harder to eradicate than we like to believe.