Au pays des supplices : caricature et paroxysme dans la Chine fantasmée d’Octave Mirbeau
In the land of torture: caricature and paroxysm in Octave Mirbeau’s fantasized China

Summary/Abstract: This article studies the tools and strategies employed in the creation of caricature in one of the prototypical works of the European exotic discourse. Le Jardin des Supplices is indeed an important milestone in the formation of stereotypes about China; however, this representation, far from seeking to develop a realistic depiction of China, or even to point out its supposed barbarity, aims, on the contrary, at producing a caricature of its counterpart, Europe, while using verbal and figurative exacerbation as main devices. Le Jardin des Supplices acts as a mirror in which the West recognizes itself in the described phantasmagorical utopia; in this sadistic farce, we will therefore identify both a parody of European institutional structures and a pastiche of the characteristic features of literary decadence. Notwithstanding, Le Jardin des Supplices provides a lasting and ironical view of the representation of China and the Chinese in the collective unconscious.

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