Abstract EN:

Louis Guilloux is a significant writer of the 20th century. He is, however, little-known and little-studied. The aim of this doctorial thesis is to help us to understand how this son of a poor provincial cobbler, without any school-leaving diplomas, became the author of Le Sang noir, a novel seen as exceptional since its publication in 1935. This study predominantly uses unpublished documents from the writer’s archives which have recently been made available to scholars. This extremely rich documentation allows us to analyse the difficulties of a writer’s job: editorial demands, indispensable participation in networks of friends, progressive assimilation of writing techniques, necessity to express himself in contemporary debates, and the danger of being seen solely as a proletarian writer. Louis Guilloux explores paths of original creation and offers a stimulating reflection on human psychology, the relationships between the individual and society, and culture. The reading of his work is enlightened by the dual knowledge of the constraints of the job and the literary and ideological stakes of the inter-war years