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| Title | From the Cult of the “Self” to the Ancestor Cult: Trilogy The Cult of the Self by Maurice Barrés |
| Author(s) | Vera V. Shervashidze. |
| Information about the author(s) | Vera V. Shervashidze, DSc in Philology, Professor at Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Miklukho-Maklaya 6, 117198 Moscow, Russia. E-mail: literatura1@mail.ru |
| Received | June 15, 2016 |
| Published | September 25, 2016 |
| Issue | Vol. 1, no 1–2 |
| Department | World Literature |
| Pages | 128-139 |
| DOI | DOI:10.22455/ 2500-4247-2016-1-1-2-128-139 |
| UDK | 821.133.1 |
| BBK | 83.3(4Фр) |
| Abstract | The debut of Maurice Barrès, his trilogy The Cult of the Self immediately won the reader’s attention. In the 1890s, his works evoked increasing interest. His contemporaries read them as a fascinating narrative about the drama of European consciousness and the attempts to overcome this drama. However, after the author’s death, the interest of readers and researchers to his works decreased that may be explained by his fascination with ideas of nationalism, or boulangisme, especially during the war. The writer was accused of nationalism, however his nationalism was but a “replica” of his early ideas about the “culture” of “the self.” According to Barrès, all major themes of his work were reflected in the first trilogy of The Cult of the Self. Later in his career, revealing the typological similarity of the processes taking place in the inner “self” and within the nation, he wrote about degradation of the “self” and degradation of the nation in parallel. Portraying “the disease of the century” and seeking its recovery, Barrès introduced the theme of the ancestor cult as a means of moral redemption in his late work. The present study of linguistic, cultural, and historical properties of Barrès’s work intends to introduce one of the greatest turn-of-the-century writers into the Russian academic context. |
| Keywords | the cult of “self,” the drama of European consciousness, nationalism, boulangism, nation, the “disease of the age.” |
| Works cited | 1 Bozhovich V. I. Dejstvie i vzaimodejstvie iskusstv: Francija konca XIX — nachala ХХ v [Action and interaction of arts: France at the end of the 19th — the beginning of the 20th centuries]. Мoscow, Nauka Publ., 1987. 320 p. 2 Barrès M. Le jardin de Bérénice. Paris, Perrin, 1991. 216 p. 3 Barrès M. Mes Cahiers. En XII vol., vol V. Paris, Plon, 1936. 716 p. 4 Barrès M. Sous l’œil des Barbares. Paris, Plon, 1994. 283 p. 5 Barrès M. Un homme libre. Paris, Plon, 1990. 374 p. 6 Caillot E. Cinq moments de la sensibilité française contemporaine. Annecy, Gardet, 1958. 173 p. 7 Citti P. Contre la décadence. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1987. 358 р. 8 Doménach J.-M. Barrès par lui-même. Paris, Le Seuil, 1954. 191 p. 9 Gillouin R. Barrès toujours présent. Paris, 1985. 206 p. 10 Kircher M.-A. Relire Barrès. Villeneuve-d’Ascq (Nord): Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 1998. 351 p. 11 Maurras Ch. La vision du moi de Maurice Barrès // La revue indépendante: poétique, littéraire, artistique. 1891, vol. 19, № 54–55, avril–juin. Available at: www. maurras.net (Accessed 07 April 2016). 12 Ponton R. Un auteur bourgeois: Maurice Barrès. Paris, 1975. 244 p. 13 Raimond M. La crise du roman. Des lendemains du naturalisme aux années vingt. Paris, Librairie José Corti, 1985.226 р. 14 Stendhal. Souvenirs d’égotisme. Paris, Gallimard, Folio, 1983. 253 p. 15 Sternhell Z. Maurice Barrès et le nationalisme français. Paris, Armand Colin, 1972. 395 p. 16 Whitman J.-M. Barrès romancier. Paris, Honoré Champion, 2000. 219 p. |
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