Abstract EN:

Mythical figures appear between the lines and "emerge" in the work of th. Gautier. However, in which context within that work are they normally found? do they come from the symbol, mytheme or mythical"recit"? are they the answer to a particular reading? are they organized around a particular core of ideas or philosopy typical of its time? when these figures are linked to "art", which role and aims are given to them? the analysis of the different mythical figures highlights, in the first section of this thesis, a group of mythical figures that allow us to follow the traces of the explicit mythsas well as those implicit at the textual level. On the other hand, the "symbolic hyperconstruction" deduced from the above reveals the core of my analysis : hermes and the art of the great work. The aim of the second part is to reorganize the plurality of the mythical figures which had come from the alchemic domain. The third part underlines the importance of the mythical entities within the art whereby th. Gautier "has always preferred the statue to women, the marble to flesh". The myth criticism perspective shows, nevertheless, that this work of "multiple possibilities" is organized around a determined central point. Following this th. Gautier appears as a writer who prefers unity to multiple myths, to varied figures and to different ways of expressing himself. This unity is manifested, at a formal level, through the personal myth "recit"; at the level of mythical figures, through the "androgynous"; finally the artistic unity of the writer-painter who fights for beauty and against thhe destructive power of time.