Les figures du traître II. Les incidences littéraires. Le questionnement éthique chez Henry Bauchau
Representing the Traitor II. Literary Incidences: The Ethical Issue in the Case of Henry Bauchau

Summary/Abstract: If a particular type of imagination related to the Motherland permeated the Belgian mindset during WWI, making a comeback during WWII, Henry Bauchau’s work may give an idea of the literary incidences of such representations and their impact upon the ethical strain in literature. This Belgian writer was born in 1913; his childhood was imbued with discourses concerning the Great War, which became a part of his own soul to such an extent that they largely determined his actions during WWII. By its end, Bachau had experienced a breakdown, which had led him to undertake therapy and, later on, to create a literary work in which the issues of heroism, of the homeland and of the dangers coming from both occupiers and traitors served as an object of axiological reflection. Genghis Khan (1954) allowed the author for the first time to construct a plot involving heroic figures that crystallized in his imaginary the defence as well as the betrayal of the motherland. The substance and the structure of this work gave shape not only to Belgian representations of the civic spirit, but also to writer’s painful drifting away from them all. This play presents a plurality of positions and offers itself as an open debate rather than a solution.

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