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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Maupassant dissects, from a pessimistic perspective, the social and human
universe of his time, describing both Parisian life and that of Normandy. Author
of several novels, he is truly a master of short stories. His aesthetic seeks
efficiency, valuing the power of image, sobriety and rigor of expression. On
the other hand, the writer also cultivates the fantastic genre, providing it with
innovative elements such as the internalization of strange phenomena, based on
the disorder of reason, inner anguish, imaginary and obsessive fears, questioning
mankind about its own identity. For this disciple of Flaubert, the real world (both
nature and society) is in its essence bad and absurd. So, his fantastic stories are
marked by the sobriety of processes and elements; they immerse us, however,
in the universe of anxious fear that comes from within. Above all, there is the
fear of the invisible, the phobia of madness and the attraction of suicide as the
ultimate salvation. We’ll revisit six Maupassant’s short stories (Sur l’eau, Lui?,
Un fou?, Lettre d’un fou, Le Horla, and Qui sait?) where everyday life appears
so frightening by its strangeness and cruelty and the theme of the Doppelgänger
is developed.
Description
Keywords
Maupassant Fear Doppelgänger