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- Creators: Canovas, Frédéric
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
In these books, illustrations were distributed throughout the text so the reader could visualize many of the storyline’s scenes. The authors themselves, however, did not oversee or produce these images, so it was at the discretion of the illustrator as to how each character, setting, facial expression, motif, etc. would be drawn. Sand was well-known for being avant-garde, progressive, independent, and, notably, female. Her opinions understandably clashed with many of the stereotypical views of the 19th century on many topics, particularly when it came to the treatment of women. By contrast, Johannot was a very well-respected and successful male artist with solid connections with influential publishers, who catered to a specific audience of well-off and well-educated buyers. The buyers of his works, particularly of his illustrated texts, were often parents of the upper middle class who wanted books to be used as gifts providing not only entertainment but also instruction and moral life lessons to their children. Johannot’s interpretations of Sand’s Indiana, which was considered scandalous and controversial upon its release, could therefore shift some of the most controversial aspects of the novel from what Sand originally intended. There are many reasons as to why Johannot might make certain interpretations of the text. He likely wanted to maintain his status as a successful author and please his audience, typically middle and upper middle-class, wealthy, and bourgeois literate patrons who educated themselves and their children by exposing themselves to books and works of art, as was traditional at the time. Additionally, his fundamental personal opinions as a successful business man might differ from Sand’s opinions as a female author, as traditional gendered roles and stereotypes often prevented the financial and societal independence of women.
This thesis will compare Johannot’s images created for Indiana with Sand’s original French text. In doing so, the reader can gain an understanding of how social status and personal interpretations can affect the way an artist represents a scene. Many of Johannot’s images agree with Sand, while others do not; some of the main similarities and differences will be analyzed to understand how and why such artistic differences occur.
When discussing gay literature in the French, contemporary sphere, one of the most up
and coming and prominent authors is Édouard Louis. His works’ focus on the realism and
violence of the working class offers a critical and necessary perspective of the gay experience in
modern-day France. While recent in their creation, Louis’ works follow a connecting thread that
is inseparable from other autofiction novels that have a narrator with same sex attractions such as
Annie Ernaux’s Ce qu’ils disent or rien and Didier Eribon’s Retour à Reims. Often commonly
discussed as French LGBT literature, these autofictional works that extend from Gide to Eribon
to now Louis demonstrate how the proposed societal dualities, limitations, and hierarchies
described by philosophers like Michel Foucault and Judith Butler affect homosexual
performativity. Louis’ first novel En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule, published on January 2, 2014,
offers another illustration of this analysis. It specifically describes the metaphysical
(metaphysical being the relationship between the outer stimuli and internal perspective) effects
and constraints of current poverty on homosexual performativity. By analyzing En finir avec
Eddy Bellegueule through this theoretical framework of power and poverty, this thesis adds a
theoretical and intersectional nuance to the narrative voice that current literature focusing on the
novel’s landscape mentions but does not reflect on. I argue that it is important to attach an
autofictional timeline that is necessary to promote and apply future ontological doctrines to this
genre.