Etudes Anglaises - N1/2015

Agnes DERAIL-IMBERT

Eros et Ares: les enfants de la guerre dans Billy Budd, Sailor de Melville

Cette etude se propose de lire Billy Budd, Sailor comme une fable juridique qui dramatise, dans un double contexte de guerre et de mutinerie, le conflit entre la violence d'une innocence exceptionnelle (Billy) et celle du mal absolu (Claggart). L'une et l'autre, hors la loi, recele une menace insurrectionnelle que la souverainete politique (celle du capitaine Vere), pour se maintenir, doit reprimer. Le jugement de Vere - l'execution de Budd -, s'exercant au nom de la violence legale, met en oeuvre une strategie qui enrole la puissance cohesive d'Eros au service de la loi mar- tiale, dans une operation qui vise a naturaliser et a sublimer la violence arbitraire de l'etat d'exception.

Against a backdrop of war and mutiny, Billy Budd, Sailor can be read as a juridical drama staging the conflict between the exceptional violence of utmost innocence (Billy's) and that of absolute evil (Claggart's). Both infringe the law and both are pregnant with a threat of insurrection which political sovereignty (captain Vere's) must eradicate for the sake of its own integrity. Vere's sentence condemning Budd to death in the name of legal violence partakes of a complex strategy whose aim is to summon Eros's cohesive power in order to buttress martial law and to naturalize and sublimate the arbitrary violence of the state of exception.

Michael GILLESPIE

The Picture of Dorian Gray as a Postmodern Work

Despite the wide range of interpretative approaches to The Picture of Dorian Gray that have appeared since its publication, all seem to assume that a particular set of values or beliefs-traditional Judeo-Christian morality, cultural attitudes, nationa- list dispositions, or queer inclinations-is integral to Wilde's narrative. This essay challenges the value of any metaphysical reading by asserting that the world of The Picture of Dorian Gray is delineated in strictly physical terms and so is best as a Post-Modern work. Through close reading, this essay shows key points in the narrative that highlight the absence of all values and that underscore the view that characters behave according to strictly material considerations. In the end the essay concludes that Wilde presents a world as grim and bleak as anything found in the works of Samuel Beckett.

Malgre les nombreuses interpretations dont a fait l'objet The Picture of Dorian Gray depuis sa publication, tous les critiques semblent penser qu'un ensemble de valeurs ou de croyances-qu'il s'agisse de la morale judeo-chretienne, de positions culturelles, de dispositions nationalistes ou de l'homosexualite-fait partie inte- grante du roman de Wilde. Cet essai remet en question la pertinence de toute lec- ture metaphysique en affirmant que le monde de The Picture of Dorian Gray est delimite en termes strictement physiques et que l'on ici affaire plutot a une oeuvre post-moderne. En se fondant sur une lecture detaillee, cet essai montre que des points-cles dans le recit mettent en evidence l'absence de toute valeur et soulignent l'idee que les personnages se comportent en fonction de considerations purement materielles. En conclusion, cet article souligne que Wilde donne a voir un monde aussi sombre que celui de Samuel Beckett.

Christopher S. NASSAAR

Hidden Meanings and the Failure of Art: Wilde's A Woman of No Importance

Complexity is the hallmark of Oscar Wilde's mature works. From "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" through The Picture of Dorian Gray and Salome, there is an incre- dible amount of complexity wherever we look. When we reach A Woman of No Importance, however, the complexity apparently disappears, and the play is usually read as a conventional Victorian melodrama. A deeper look at the play reveals veiled references to Farquhar, Hawthorne, Arbuthnot and Baudelaire. The refe- rences point to a deep hidden meaning in the play. Traced carefully, they reveal Mrs. Arbuthnot as a deeply corrupt woman who is unaware of the dark recesses of evil within herself. Unfortunately, this suppressed undercurrent of meaning is too dee- ply buried and very difficult to detect, which has led people in general to accept the surface meaning as the true one. The play is thus a stylistic failure, although its veiled thematic content is quite profound.

La complexite caracterise les oeuvres d'Oscar Wilde, de "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" jusqu'a The Picture of Dorian Gray et Salome, alors que, dans A Woman of No Importance, celle-ci parait moins evidente, la piece etant le plus souvent lue comme un melodrame victorien conventionnel. Cependant, si on analyse la piece de plus pres, on y decele des references voilees a Farquhar, Hawthorne, Arbuthnot et Baudelaire. Celles-ci soulignent qu'il y a dans la piece un sens cache, et une analyse detaillee revele que Mrs Arbuthnot est en fait une femme corrompue et inconsciente du mal tapi en elle. Malheureusement, parce que celui-ci est profondement enfoui, on s'en est souvent tenu a une lecture superficielle de la piece. Celle-ci est donc, en un sens, un echec stylistique en depit de sa profondeur thematique.

Nathalie SAUDO-WELBY

Narratorial authority in Sarah Grand's Beth Book (1897)

The Beth Book, a partly autobiographical narrative, is a feminist Bildungsroman told in the third person. Historical, religious and scientifc discourses combine to give authority to the narrator's vision of Beth, so that the narrator is fnally in a position to award Beth the title of female genius. Yet, very little is said of the con- tent of Beth's "art for man's sake;" the title and the content of her non-fction book are not described; and the novel's last words are the name of her "Knight," a writer who believes in woman's genius to reveal man's own. Avoiding the most direct form of didacticism,