Les figures de la divinité chez Sartre, Giraudoux et Camus : trois pièces écrites sous l’Occupation allemande
Les mouches, Sodome et Gomorrhe, and Caligula present divinities parodying and criticizing the political leaders of the Occupation (1940-1944), as well as the use by dictators of traditional religious ideologies for subjugating humanity to totalitarian regimes. Theatrical divinities once infallible and all-powerful, the figures analyzed in this study are the product of the questioning of the divinity and political powers of the twentieth century. Our thesis is comprised of three chapters which examine the discourses of these figures of the divinity from dramaturgical, semiological, philosophical and pragmatic perspectives in order to consider the following hypothesis : everything leads to believe that by limiting the ascendency of fictional divinities, largely by the means of weaknesses in their discourses, Sartre, Giraudoux and Camus tried to neutralize the corresponding discourses of real men in the collective conscience of the period. The authors studied profoundly modified the traditional image of theatrical divinities by undermining the force of their language and by questioning their identity. The divinities chosen for this study announce the decomposition of the personnage which took place after 1950 : their status is undermined and the perlocutionary force of their language is lessened. Without a real stronghold on humanity, depending on theatre, pretence, histrionics, and human weaknesses, these caricatured divinities expose themselves to compromising their regimes and are reduced to an influence highly limited by man’s liberty. By updating these myths and accounts in this way, Sartre, Giraudoux and Camus tried, by extension, to discredit the European leaders of the period.
Sartre Giraudoux Camus Occupation 20th century Sartre Giraudoux Camus Occupation Theatre Pragmatics Poetics God Divinity