Despite the passage of time, the literary output by Jean Genet keeps arousing controversy in both critics and readers. It is due to the contents of his works which reflect the private life of a man who is determined to separate himself from the world of “decent people” and to live among the “aristocrats of Evil”. The present study discusses the interference of various rituals that occur in Genet’s prose writing, full of villains and vagabonds. It analyses five novels: Our Lady of the Flowers, The Miracle of the Rose, Funeral Rites, Querelle of Brest and The Thief’s Journal. The main goal is to describe how those rituals are connected to one another and why Evil can be perceived as a driving force. To present a vast range of this problem, the paper takes into consideration a number of religious, erotic and criminal elements.

Key words: prose works, rituals, religion, eroticism, Evil, delinquency

“The Myth of Supermale”: Between France and Maghreb in The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris by Leïla Marouane

Leïla Marouane is a maghrebian writer and feminist. The Sexual Life of an Islamist in Paris is her 5th novel. It is a story of a 40-year-old Maghrebian man born in Algeria who spent his life in France in a traditional Muslim family. The tensions between his country of origin and the host country appear at all levels. The protagonist cannnot combine his traditional side (associated with religion and family life), with his modern side (his work and desires). These contradictory elements constitute his identity, but his psyche is occupied by the question of sexuality. Contrary to the expectations of the reader, “sexual life of an Islamist in Paris” is virtually non-existent, at least for the hero. The dissonance between the title of the novel and the story of the protagonist’s life reveals its schizophrenia. The inability to realize that it is impossible to achieve this “myth of masculinity” can lead to mental disorders, as in the case of Marouane’s hero.

Key words: maghrebian literature, men’s studies, identity, sexuality, Islam.

This article examines three novels by Ananda Devi, a well‑known francophone novelist from Mauritius, the author of many novels, short stories and poetry books. In her novels, theauthor portrays the lives of women, the roles and norms that have been imposed on them, as well as their place in the conservative and patriarchal society in Mauritius and in India.

The protagonists of Pagli, Le Voile de Draupadi and Indian tango, whilst searching for their identity, rebel against the society, their families and religion which marginalise them and deny their right to make decisions about their own lives. The protagonists of Devi’s novels by objecting to such a lifestyle, by violating the social norms and breaching bans, discover their identity. Pagli symbolically rediscovers her true name, Anjali freedom and Subhadra her body/sexuality.

Key words: Ananda Devi, francophone novel, woman, identity, freedom, violation of social, religious and moral norms

The following article discusses rituals of control and purification characteristic of anorexia and bulimia nervosa, as shown in Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Wintergirls. One of the main assumptions of the paper is that eating disorders should be analyzed in the context of contemporary Western culture and the conventional models of femininity. As the Beauty Myth becomes the modern religion, rituals of hunger are interpreted as a present‑day version of religious rites.

Key words: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, the Beauty Myth, rituals of control and purification

The novel by Aude (Claudette Charbonneau‑Tissot), a Quebec writer, spotlights a woman who is swept into the shackles of madness which she then consciously leaves behind only to commit suicide. Her rejection of the inertia and the roles imposed on her raises the fundamental questions about life and death, conscience and freedom.
The difficulty with living a life becomes a philosophical problem, superficially devoid of a religious dimension as the protagonist is an atheist. The novel can thereby be read as a possible illustration of the secularization of Quebec, whose culture once deeply marked with Catholic traits is now showing its religionless face. At the same time, the sacred continues to be a crucial factor in that it passes its message in the language interspersed with Biblical images and liturgical rituals. The opposition between the rationalist view which underlies the protagonist’s decisions and the Catholic heritage which spills unconsciously into her thoughts is the focal point of this study.

Key words: ritual, death, religion, Aude, Claudette Charbonneau‑Tissot

In keeping with the epic conception of reality, the Crusade songs La Chanson d’Antioche and La Conquête de Jérusalem realize the axiological opposition between Good and Evil, embodied in the armies of the Crusaders and the Muslims. However, the appearance of two value systems within one work neutralizes the oppositions, with many of the actions losing their transgressive character. This capacity for neutralization belongs solely to the literary discourse, whereas in medieval realities axiological systems were far from elastic. A distinctive element of the world of the Christians in these texts is the army of King Tafur, which breaks all chivalric rules, hardly a case of transgression this, but rather an incentive for praise and respect. The king’s army constitutes an interesting example of the transference of the warriors’ desires, restricted as they are by the chivalric code.

Key words: Crusade, epic, axiology, religion knighthood.

Bien que Le Sari vert se présente comme un monologue masculin, il n’en est pas moins un plaidoyer pour les femmes, une illustration de la maltraitance au nom de la virilité dans un contexte que l’on ne peut circonscrire uniquement dans la société mauricienne.

Dans le projet de cette étude, à partir de la problématique centrée sur la monstruosité dans ses manifestations et ses paramètres psychologiques, seront examinées les composantes relevant spécifiquement de la culture et de la société mauricienne, de son héritage indien dans la conception du féminin, de l’influence d’une religion hiérarchisée ainsi que les éléments linguistiques en usage chez Ananda Devi qui leur octroient une dimension ouverte sur l’Occident au service d’une cause tristement universelle.