This article examines the failure of the pursuit of freedom in Les Rougon-Macquart through the parallel destinies of Gervaise and her daughter Nana. It first analyzes how each woman initially succeeds, albeit briefly, in achieving a form of autonomy: Gervaise through hard work and moral integrity, Nana through transgression and seduction. The second part of the article focuses on the subsequent loss of that freedom. Drawing on naturalist principles such as heredity and environment, Zola constructs a deterministic universe in which individual aspirations are ultimately crushed. Gervaise ’ s gradual degradation and Nana ’ s sudden death both reflect not only the weight of social and biological constraints, but also Zola ’ s aesthetic and ideological objectives. The article concludes by placing these fictional trajectories within the historical context of nineteenth-century women ’ s limited social roles, showing how Zola ’ s fiction exposes the tragic dead ends of female emancipation in a patriarchal
society.

The invisibilization of female authors under the ancien régime is a complex phenomenon, although one that is increasingly being better understood. Among the many factors that contributed to the masculinization of the literary canon, this article highlights the notion of an overly ostentatious freedom exercised by female authors—whether amorous, social, political, or artistic. To confirm or refute this thesis, the study focuses on the exceptional case of Illyrine, ou l ’ écueil de l ’ inexpérience, the autobiography of Madame de Morency, a forgotten author from the late 18th century.

This article examines the impossible nature of freedom in the philosophy of Emil Cioran, as most forcefully expressed in De l ’ inconvénient d ’ être né. Far from celebrating existence as a space of autonomy, Cioran constructs an ontological critique in which being itself constitutes a fall, and birth is a fault rather than a beginning. Lucidity, often hailed as a tool of emancipation, becomes for Cioran a destructive force—a corrosive awareness that annihilates the possibility of action and condemns consciousness to sterile suffering. From the refusal of being to the failure of consciousness, the article explores how Cioran denies the very conditions that traditional philosophy associates with freedom. Yet paradoxically, the fragmentary form of his writing opens a space for resistance. By embracing contradiction, refusing systematic thought, and fragmenting language, Cioran turns writing into an act of negative freedom. The fragment becomes both symptom and expression of a freedom stripped of illusions—a freedom experienced not through action, but through withdrawal, silence, and irony.

The article analyses the aspects of freedom in the work of Villiers de l ’ Isle-Adam, understood in three interrelated ways: as a fictional theme, as a challenge the writer sets himself in the face of historical upheavals and the pursuit of his literary career, and as a modern approach to writing aimed at a poetic and musical effects. In Villiers ’ s theatre, the struggle for collective freedom is intertwined with the construction of a dream of power. The apprehension of individual freedom stems from idealism and aims at inner freedom opposed to the libertarian paroxysm. The  monarchical nostalgia of Villiers the aristocrat is expressed through symbolic gestures and an attitude affirming his freedom from the bourgeois world. To liberate his writing from generic rules, Villiers tends to give it a poetic and musical dimension through punctuation and stylistic choices.

Boualem Sansal ’ s work stands out for its deep and multifaceted exploration of freedom, understood not as an acquired state but as a relentless quest in the face of contemporary totalitarianisms. Through genre hybridization, fierce satire, and an examination of the role of language in processes of alienation, Sansal deconstructs the mechanisms of power. His characters embody an intellectual revolt and a search for truth, particularly when confronting traumatic pasts and manipulated memories. The paradoxical use of French, the language of the former colonizer, becomes a powerful vehicle for emancipation and identity reappropriation, allowing the author to break taboos and assert a narrative and critical sovereignty essential for individual and collective freedom.

This article examines freedom through the act of writing in Antonin Artaud ’ s work. Specifically, it seeks to demonstrate how his play, The Cenci, embodies his theory of cruelty. To this end, it analyses the ethopoeia (character portrayal) of the two main antagonists: Count Cenci and his daughter Beatrice, with particular emphasis on the sensitive theme of incest. Finally, the article shows how Artaudian writing functions as a form of symbolic liberation, exploring various writing processes and the aesthetic quest within the didascalia.

As a product of its time, Villiers de l ’ Isle-Adam ’ s novel, The Future Eve, published in 1886, sees positivism, scientism and libertarianism unfold and combine, against a backdrop of pessimistic and disturbing spiritualism. Featuring the android Hadaly—the feminine Ideal of modern humanity, created as the result of a Faustian pact made between a blinded scientist and a disenchanted aristocrat—the work proposes a materialistic vision of salvation. The article will attempt to show how this quest is fruitless, as it is lost in advance.

Faat Kiné, protagonist of the eponymous film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène, is a strong, independent, and self-assured woman. She embodies freedom within a traditionalist society that grants women few rights. She symbolizes modernity: in a world dominated by patriarchy, she asserts her voice and achieves her goals. Sembène foregrounds an exceptional woman who seizes power rather than waiting for it to be granted. The film appears as a living manifesto of feminism, providing the framework for our analysis.