Les chasseurs et leurs victimes: pour une écologie des relations humaines
Hunters and Their Victims: for the Ecology of Human Relationships

Around "La Vraie Vie" [Real Life] by Adeline Dieudonné

Author(s): Katarzyna Thiel-Jańczuk
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, French Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: predator; victim; new sensitivity; heroism; victimization; Dieudonné
Summary/Abstract: The article presents an analysis of Belgian author Adeline Dieudonné’s bestselling novel "True Life" in relation to contemporary humanistic reflection on the relationship between humans and animals, in particular by such philosophers as Jacques Derrida or Elisabeth de Fonteney. The novel is also analysed in the context of the emergence of a new sensitivity, which Jean-Marie Apostolidès labels as the “culture of victimization”. The purpose of the hunting images appearing in the novel is to criticize traditional cultural codes related to the “culture of heroism” (Apostolidès), responsible for shaping interpersonal relationships on the basis of the predator-victim relation. Dieudonné postulates the need to redefine traditional social roles, and also treats her work as a form of literary “intervention” aimed at creating conditions for non-aggressive coexistence of all living beings.

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