Mauprat ou la Belle et la Bête

Mauprat (1837) can be read as a revival of the Beauty and the Beast theme, since the novel reiterates, in all its violence, the drama of acculturation, the metamorphosis of a "wolf" into a human being, under the influence of a civilized woman. It does not mean however that George Sand reverses the traditional masculine-feminine roles, for the heroine owes her strength only to her adhesion to paternal values and to the rational and virile ideal of self-control. But the novel also shows, for woman as well as for man, the frailty of this mastery and the devastating effects of the repression it requires. The other never consents to be reduced to the same and, to assimilation, Sand prefers differentiation between equals. Therefore, a dramatic rather than a peaceful coexistence of contraries that are no longer truly contrary because it is no longer possible to draw a clear dividing line between them, structures the entire novel: culture/nature, man/woman, aristocrat/peasant, master/servant, speech/muteness, discourse/poetry, reason/madness, white/red, etc. So, on every level, Mauprat unsettles the prestige of male logocentrism that is however still its mold. (In French) (YB-S)