« Le sang se mit à couler » : prendre les armes pour défendre la nature

Abstract

Continuing his work in «écopoétique», which had already led him to take interest in the representation of violence in extreme contemporary literature (cf. Littérature et écologie. Le Mur des abeilles, José Corti, 2020), Pierre Schoentjes here examines the way in which literature represents the neo-rurals of the 1970s, defenders of nature who returned to the countryside out of rejection of consumer society.Based on Pierre Pelot’s Canards boiteux (1975), in which the characters resort to arms to prevent poachers from stealing young peregrine falcons, the study observes how violence that could lead to human death seemed legitimate at the time. In contrast, the analysis uses numerous examples from contemporary novels to show why literature at the beginning of the 21st century is reluctant to use violence against people as a legitimate means of serving the ecological cause.

Keywords

• rurality
• violence
• ecocriticism
• back to nature
• militancy
• Pelot Pierre