L'humour de l'exil dans les oeuvres de Romain Gary et celles d'Isaac Bashevis Singer

An essay about humour of exile in the works of romain gary and isaac bashevis singer

• Auteur / Autrice : Jean-François Pépin
• Direction : Judith Stora-Sandor
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Littérature comparée
• Date : Soutenance en 1998
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 8

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Humour

Singer, Isaac Bashevis (1904-1991)

Juifs -- Identité collective

Dans la littérature

Exil

Résumé

L'etude portant sur l'humour de l'exil dans les oeuvres de r. Gary et celles d'i. B. Singer revient a s'interroger : comment un exil peut-il etre rendu par un phenomene aussi volatile que l'humour ? la distance entre les termes se reduit si nous precisons de quel exil il est question. Il est ontologique. Les personnages de gary, ceux de singer, sont en quete permanente de leur propre humanite. L'exil tient pour eux dans l'espace d'une double interrogation : pourquoi suis-je si peu humain ? pourquoi autrui ne l'est-il pas davantage ? un premier chapitre s'attache a l'infirmite d'etre un homme, l'insupportable condition humaine, les tentatives pour parvenir a sortir de l'humain, l'eventualite d'un organe manquant de l'humanite, le desir de l'aventure de la fraternite, enfin le constat d'un humain semblable a l'inhumain. L'humour employe y est proche du comique, le rire l'arme principale. Le second chapitre evoque une premiere mutation, celle de l'homme-bete en homme-sexe, ou le cheminement de l'inhumain a l'humain par l'humour. Le troisieme chapitre reprend la formule fameuse de s. De beauvoir, on ne nait pas humain, on le devient. Les productions humaines y demontrent leur inanite. Les sciences, les arts, les lettres sont au mieux les + maquilleurs de l'humanite ;. Peut-on confier ce role aux religions ? la reponse s'avere bien sombre, selon singer, dieu n'a pas cree l'homme humain, pour gary, le christ lui-meme a echoue a le rendre tel. Le quatrieme chapitre est consacre a la solitude de l'inhumain. Pourquoi l'homme ne peut-il accepter son exil de lui-meme ? l'intolerable solitude, les aspirations de l'ame, la colere contre dieu expliquent ce refus, mais ne fournissent ni solution, ni refuge. Confronte a leur finitude, a l'echec des creations de l'homme pour le guider vers l'humain, mures dans la solitude, les personnages optent dans le cinquieme chapitre pour le desir, celui de bien faire l'humour ensemble, de predire le partenaire futur, l'homme humain, par greffe d'organe, piqures, ou disparition de l'espece presente, fruit d'une erreur divine, au profit de l'homme veritable. Cette attente est en realite marge, refuge, lieu de l'humain incree en nous, inexprime. L'espoir de le reveler un jour est manifeste dans la seule activite pleinement humaine, aimer, espace de liberte, de creation de l'humain.

My thesis about humour of exile in the works of r. Gary and i. B. Singer is a matter of an ontological way of being. The characters of both the authors are permanently looking for their own humanity. The truth of exile can be expressed through a double interrogation : why aren't i a true human being ? why are the other ones in the same case ? speaking of true human beings, we intend to express the capacity to love and respect each other, even when he's totally differents from me, he never is, he can't be stranger to me. It doesn't matter whether the characters are coming from a roman or a novel, in both situations they feel the same way the lack of humanity, the struggle in order to humanize mankind. The way out could be to commit suicide or to go mad from loneliness, because for the characters there's an obligation to live in a false world. To claim the possibility for a man to become a true human, full of humanitarianism is not only a matter of being, but rather one of ontology. The basic reasons could be found in terms of evolution, philosophical purpose or god's will. But all this is of no use when we try to express the lack of humanity in mankind. Humour seems to be a solution. It has to be understood here as either a weapon that we can use against ourselves, we do mean irony, or as the only way to accept what is, at first sight, unacceptable. The ideal way to humanity is permanent use of comic, laughter, irony, absurdity, even the grotesque. The first purpose is to survive without pain, or with the least pain possible, the second one to realise, perhaps to accept a fact. An example can help to state our demonstration, between 1933 and 1945, nazis in germany planned and realised the shoah, in order to slaughter all jewish people in europe. The point is, for gary and singer's characters, as well as for us, that it's impossible to consider them as having been extra or non-human beings. They were monsters, but human monsters, not aliens. By this only fact, we are all, potentially, subject to become executioners. The first chapter is about the infirmity of being part of a mankind lacking permanently its own humanitarianism, the second one is about the way, throughout humour, from the beast-man to the sex-man. The third chapter is about the skill attempt to become human. The fourth chapter is about the loneliness of being nonhuman and the fith about the uniq