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Article Dans Une Revue Mnemosyne o la costruzione del senso Année : 2020

In Cold Blood : The Vampire Theme In Leo Malet's Work

De Sang froid : le motif du vampire dans l'oeuvre de Léo Malet 1

Résumé

The Surrealist poet Léo Malet is best known as an author of detective novels and the creator of private detective Nestor Burma. While he made few incursions into the fantastic genre proper, the figure of the vampire is outlined in both his poetic and narrative work. We must imagine a quiet presence woven into the fabric of the text, a motif that intersects with other, semantically related themes such as eroticism, necrophilia, mirror images, anthropophagy, etc. All these elements should not be regarded as borrowings from folklore and mainstream literature but rather as expressions of a genuine autobiographical quest articulated with real-life drama experienced by the author. These tracings constitute what, in his eponymous short story, Henry James calls “The Figure in the Carpet”: it gives the text its internal coherence because, both in matters of criminal investigation and in autobiographical matters, the watermarked motifs are those that reveal artistic value.
The Surrealist poet Léo Malet is best known as an author of detective novels and the creator of private detective Nestor Burma. While he made few incursions into the fantastic genre proper, the figure of the vampire is outlined in both his poetic and narrative work. We must imagine a quiet presence woven into the fabric of the text, a motif that intersects with other, semantically related themes such as eroticism, necrophilia, mirror images, anthropophagy, etc. All these elements should not be regarded as borrowings from folklore and mainstream literature but rather as expressions of a genuine autobiographical quest articulated with real-life drama experienced by the author. These tracings constitute what, in his eponymous short story, Henry James calls "The Figure in the Carpet": it gives the text its internal coherence because, both in matters of criminal investigation and in autobiographical matters, the watermarked motifs are those that reveal artistic value. Poète surréaliste, père du détective Nestor Burma, Léo Malet est surtout connu comme auteur de romans policiers. S'il a peu illustré le genre fantastique à proprement parler, la figure du vampire se profile dans son oeuvre, tant poétique que narrative. Cette présence, discrète, relève du filigrane. Ce motif du vampire s'entrecroise avec d'autres thèmes qui lui sont sémantiquement reliés : l'érotisme, la nécrophilie, le miroir, l'anthropophagie… Autant d'éléments qui s'avéreront relever, non du folklore de la littérature populaire, mais bien d'une véritable quête autobiographique s'articulant au drame personnel de l'auteur. Ces entrelacs constituent ce que, dans sa nouvelle éponyme, Henry James appelle Le Motif dans le tapis-qui confère sa cohérence interne à l'oeuvre. Car en matière policière comme en matière autobiographique, c'est au filigrane qu'on reconnaît la valeur.
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hal-04293108 , version 1 (25-11-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04293108 , version 1

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Cédric Pérolini. De Sang froid : le motif du vampire dans l'oeuvre de Léo Malet 1. Mnemosyne o la costruzione del senso, 2020. ⟨hal-04293108⟩

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