Satire of the Swamp, Sotie of the Self: Reflections of the Saugrenu in the Mirror of Paludes (1895)

Paludes has long been considered a crucial theoretical text containing key elements of Gide's æsthetics, especially in relation to investigations of form and ideological reflections on the nature of writing. Yet from the text also emerges an extremely successful endeavor to express a modern comic form that surpasses the realms of parody and satire to formulate the quirky notion of the Gidean saugrenu. Gide utilizes the ambivalent framework of the sotie to construct a discursive mise en scène of the antithetical forces of plénitude and atrophie to advance a subtle perspective on the art of humor that prefigures modernist theory and postmodern technique of the twentieth century. (PAG)