Signes apocalyptiques: l’infanticide magique et l’enfant monstrueux (littérature, peinture, cinéma)
Apocalyptic Signs

Summary/Abstract: This paper, which is part of a larger research project, proposes a comparison between different arts (literature, painting, cinema) and their representational strategies, taking as a starting point the ritual infanticide. Two main cases of infanticide are considered here. In the first case the children are murdered in order to serve at the making of magical potions meant to help the witches in controlling all human beings: they are sacrificed to the Evil Spirit. In the second case, the baby is a monster, as a result of the mother’s sexual intercourse with the Devil or with some supernatural Beast. In both cases, the child is seen as a messenger of the End: the apocalyptic metaphors are recorded each time they appear in the works analyzed here. For a better understanding of the fears related to the infanticide, a real case, that of the great murderer Gilles de Rais, is studied in this paper, in relation to some works of art inspired by his life and facts.

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