MAUPASSANT ET LA GUERRE DE 1870. (French)

GUY DE MAUPASSANT AND THE WAR OF 1870. (English)

Maupassant's work occupies a most distinctive place in the abundant war literature that emerged after the disaster of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He wrote about twenty short stories and a considerable number of newspaper columns exploiting the theme of war. In his war chronicles Maupassant displays a more radical attitude than in his stories, both marked by the intense aversion to governments eager to wage wars. Firstly, we will briefly reflect on Maupassant as a soldier in the war and Maupassant as the writer of newspaper columns on the war, and will then explore his depiction of the war and its consequences. We will identify the two challenges he faces in his writings: the representation of the Prussian occupant which is tainted by the dominant ideology and propaganda, and the ambiguous representation of the French, as he was torn between his sympathetic attitude towards their heroism and the negative attitude to the French resistance, sometimes considered even cruel and barbaric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dans l'abondante littérature de guerre qui naît après le désastre de 1870, Maupassant occupe une place à part. Il aborde dans une vingtaine de ses nouvelles la guerre de 1870 de manière ambiguë. Après une esquisse de Maupassant en guerre et de Maupassant chroniqueur de cette même guerre, notre but est, en prenant une vue d'ensemble, de voir comment Maupassant représente la guerre et ses conséquences, et de cerner les deux tentations auxquelles il est confronté dans l'écriture de ces nouvelles : la représentation de l'occupant prussien, disséminée par l'idéologie dominante, et la représentation ambiguë du Français, entre l'attitude héroïque et celle tout aussi négative de la résistance française, voire cruelle et barbare. Nous nous attacherons à la représentation de la guerre dans les nouvelles, après avoir abordé les opinions de Maupassant sur la guerre dans ses chroniques de journaux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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