Abstract EN:

Barres always maintained that his work, inspired by one single surge, entirely originated from the works of fiction gathered under the title le culte du moi, the writing of which had determined his life. Now, put off by these early writings, critics have resolved to spread a reducing interpretation of them, or they have resigned themselves to considering them to be unintelligible. Subjected to a patient scruting, enlightened by the recent methods of textual analysis, they let themselves be interpreted and in fact, disclose the meaning of his work and destiny. A personal psychic causality which psychoanalysis enables one to elucidate, along with the test of radical nihilism, place barres in a philosophical sphere close to nietzsche's, devoid of all transcendancy and of all universal pressure, open to the ontological search. The logique de la philosophie by e. Weil sheds light on his decisive stance. Barres stakes his salvation by the help of writing, on the "free creation of self" of the personnalite, and devotes his energy extending to the community the benefits of his method of managing his internal conflicts. How writing, conceived as a poetic and self-creating practice, commands barres's personal achievements in the field of private life and in that of social and political activities, how aesthetic creation compensates for the non-fulfilment inherent in human finitude-of which he is acutely aware; how, in spite of failures, but perseveringly, barres progresses towards a tragic, torn, reconciled and reconciling wisdom, and rises to the "love" of the "poet", in charge of the "kingdom of the earth" (heidegger) and of the work that reaps its blossoming in beauty, such is the purpose of this study.