L’espace sacré (profané) dans La Meute de Serge Brussolo comme figure spatiale caractéristique du roman gothique
The (Profane) Sacred Space in La Meute by Serge Brussolo as Spatial Figure Characteristic of the Gothic Novel

Author(s): Aleksandra Bogusławska
Subject(s): Cultural Essay
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: sacred space; desecration; archaic mother; neo‑Gothic; Serge Brussolo;
Summary/Abstract: This article aims to study space presented in the neo‑Gothic novel La Meute by Serge Brussolo as an example of the desecrated sacred space; a spatial figure characteristic of the Gothic novel; present in the genre from its beginnings. In La Meute; Serge Brussolo refers to the cult of the archaic mother associated with nature; embodying excessive and uncontrolled violence that arises in the middle of the modern metropolis. The Mondescos’ house; located in the center of a big city; appears as a temple of pagan idols depicting terrible and merciless animals which demand human sacrifices to compensate for endured desecration. The sacredness of the house is reinforced by the presence of a room where a statue of its former owner receives a kind of veneration. The sacred becomes affected by the violation; whereas the statue is destroyed at the end of the text in a desecrating act.

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