"Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique

By following the use made by playwrights and writers around 1900 of a famous biblical sentence (John XX, 16-17), this essay hopes to outline some major features of the decadent imagination and poetics in Europe. From Balzac onwards, Jesus' sentence to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection (&quo...

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Main Author: Guy Ducrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2012-03-01
Series:Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur
Subjects:
Online Access:https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/2051
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description By following the use made by playwrights and writers around 1900 of a famous biblical sentence (John XX, 16-17), this essay hopes to outline some major features of the decadent imagination and poetics in Europe. From Balzac onwards, Jesus' sentence to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection ("Do not touch me") is used on stage (Ibsen, Maeterlinck, Lorrain, Sardou, D'Annunzio) or by novelists (Rachilde) in the context of an encounter between the living and the dead. The famous sentence is now very often pronounced by women on the stage - and thus reflects the threatening aggression of men, in the context of violence between the sexes. Far from conveying the Bible's message of hope and resurrection, the considered texts lead it astray on the paths of pessimism and despair. Yet their issue is not only philosophical. They also reveal the poetics of Decadence: pronounced only once in the Bible, the phrase becomes almost a leitmotif in the productions of 1900 and reveals a deep mistrust in the power of language. Profanation of the holy message, distortion of the Word, stammering pronunciation - some of Decadence's poetics and aesthetics are illuminated through the uses (and misuses) of this one single, but famous, sentence.
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spelling doaj.art-23c4906d4e8947e6824c6b3aa0504d322024-02-02T05:18:25ZengSeptentrio Academic PublishingNordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur0809-16681503-20862012-03-0115210.7557/13.20511917"Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole bibliqueGuy Ducrey0Université de StrasbourgBy following the use made by playwrights and writers around 1900 of a famous biblical sentence (John XX, 16-17), this essay hopes to outline some major features of the decadent imagination and poetics in Europe. From Balzac onwards, Jesus' sentence to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection ("Do not touch me") is used on stage (Ibsen, Maeterlinck, Lorrain, Sardou, D'Annunzio) or by novelists (Rachilde) in the context of an encounter between the living and the dead. The famous sentence is now very often pronounced by women on the stage - and thus reflects the threatening aggression of men, in the context of violence between the sexes. Far from conveying the Bible's message of hope and resurrection, the considered texts lead it astray on the paths of pessimism and despair. Yet their issue is not only philosophical. They also reveal the poetics of Decadence: pronounced only once in the Bible, the phrase becomes almost a leitmotif in the productions of 1900 and reveals a deep mistrust in the power of language. Profanation of the holy message, distortion of the Word, stammering pronunciation - some of Decadence's poetics and aesthetics are illuminated through the uses (and misuses) of this one single, but famous, sentence.https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/2051Biblepalimpsesteréécriturehéritageprofanationdévoiement
spellingShingle Guy Ducrey
"Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique
Nordlit: Tidsskrift i litteratur og kultur
Bible
palimpseste
réécriture
héritage
profanation
dévoiement
title "Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique
title_full "Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique
title_fullStr "Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique
title_full_unstemmed "Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique
title_short "Ne me touchez pas!": Transgressions décadentes d’une parole biblique
title_sort ne me touchez pas transgressions decadentes d une parole biblique
topic Bible
palimpseste
réécriture
héritage
profanation
dévoiement
url https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/nordlit/article/view/2051
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