Le défi de l’humanité
The Challenge of Humanity

Towards a More Peaceful Coexistence of Species in Animal Texts of Louis Pergaud

Author(s): Magdalena Wojciechowska
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, French Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: animal; coexistence; ecocriticism; humanity; non-human; Louis Pergaud
Summary/Abstract: This article provides insight into the works of a French writer, Louis Pergaud (1882-1915), seen through an ecocritical lens. The study of Pergaud’s animal texts: De Goupil à "Margot" (1910), "La Revanche du corbeau: nouvelles histoires de bêtes" (1911) and "Dernières histoiresde bêtes" (posthumous edition, 2020) reveals that the author can be seen as a precursor of “environmental writings”. The way in which Pergaud sensitizes us to the animal suffering and to the fact that the boundary between the human and the animal species is hard to break will be examined. The said boundary impedes the redefinition of our relationship with the non-human actors, which is yet necessary. Also the language used by the author in order to bring closer the two realities – the animal and the human one – and his willingness to ensure them a more peaceful coexistence will be analysed.

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