University of Exeter Press

François Mauriac: Psycholectures/Psychoreadings

    • 278 Pages


    François Mauriac is one of France's most read and consistently studied modern writers. For more than a decade Mauriac's work has been increasingly subjected to analyses drawing their inspiration in one way or another from psychology. Most of the essays in this collection are written from a psychobiographical or psychocritical viewpoint, drawing on the work of Freud, Marthe Robert, Klein, Lacan and Mauron. In some cases they investigate recurrent themes, motifs or preoccupations in Mauriac's work as a whole, in others they focus their attention on individual texts. Brought together they indicate the richness of this kind of approach as well as of the material at which it is directed.



    The essays are presented in the language of original composition (English or French) with a complete set of summaries in the alternate language in an appendix.





    François Mauriac is one of France's most read and consistently studied modern writers. Most of the essays in this collection are written from a psychobiographical or psychocritical viewpoint, drawing on the work of Freud, Marthe Robert, Klein, Lacan and Mauron.





    1. La mere, personnage cle dans les romans de Mauriac, J.E. Flower

    2. La paternite dans "Le Noeud de Viperes" et "La Pharisienne" de Mauriac, Josette Pacaly

    3. Sens et signification du theme du double dans les premiers romans de Francois Mauriac, Olivier Maison

    4. Sisters and brother-sister relationships in the novels of Francois Mauriac, J.E. Flower

    5. Une lecture du "Sang d'Atys", Marc Quaghebeur

    6. Oedipal and pre-Oedipal elements in "Therese Desqueyroux", William Kidd

    7. "Therese Desqueyroux", Marc Quaghebeur

    8. Towards a psychobiological study of Mauriac - the case of "Genitrix", J.E. Flower

    9. Mauriac's revolutionary phantasm - the textual unconsciousness in "Genitrix", William Kidd

    10. "Ce qui etait perdu" et la "passion etrangere", J.E. Flower

    11. "Un Adolescent d'autrefois" ou le roman d'Atys, Olivier Maison et J.E. Flower

    12. Droles d'oiseaux ("Le Mal" de Francois Mauriac), M.-J. Bataille

    13. Censure et autocensure dans "L'Agneau" et dans "Le Sagouin" de Mauriac, Michel Malicet

    14. Mauriac et Freud, Paul Croc

    15.Mauriac, Freud - l'absence d'une conjonction de coordination, M.-C. Praicheu

    16. Le Noeud gordien - Mauriac et la psychanalyse, M.-J. Bataille



    John Flower is Professor of French, University of Kent at Canterbury. He is General Editor of the Journal of European Studies. His many publications include François Mauriac–Jean Paulhan: Correspondance, 1925–1967 and Pierre Courtade: The Making of a Party Scribe