Identités « blanches » dans la prose courte de Guy de Maupassant
"White" identities in Guy de Maupassant’s short stories

Summary/Abstract: This article was written to draw attention to the intimate relationship between the (chromatic) meaning of the first names of certain Maupassantian characters and their moral traits. First, we will insist on a short theorization of the etymology and the (ambivalent) symbolism of white so that we can later make the necessary association with the ambivalent moral portrait of the characters. To achieve this kinship, we will consider the moral traits that characterize "white" identities through the way of reacting, thinking, etc. around other characters. Is the white color of these first names as pure as the symbolism it carries? This analysis, which targets exceptionally female characters, will culminate with the development of certain typologies specific to the writer’s time.

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