Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Männlichkeit

The French Republic, this is Marianne on the one hand, the community of equal brothers on the other – and the unspeakable idea of an emasculated state in between. The new body politic is rather ambiguous, and so are the texts working on its representation during the Third Republic. Starting from the narration of an identity in crisis, Huysmans, Zola, Lorrain or Barrès offer different resolutions to the conflict between the ideology of a virile band of brothers and an imaginary of lost masculinity. Jarry, Romains, and Proust respond to these resolutions in order to deconstruct them or to demonstrate their contradictions. Analyses of numerous texts present a panorama of different forms of allegorical expression.