The author Louis Pergaud (1882-1915) lived during a fascinating and complex period in the development of the French national identity. It was a time when various forms of nationalism, many fed by lingering memories of the disastrous defeat of 1870/71, came to exert an enormous influence on the evolution of political, social and artistic expression in France. La Guerre des boutons is an example of a literary work deeply marked by the nationalistic tendencies prevalent in Belle Époque France. Without being a nationalist manifesto, nor an allegory of the Franco-Prussian war, Pergaud’s novel is founded in a popular nationalism which developed within an intellectual and political context shaped by the memory of the “année terrible” (1870/71), and which promoted an attachment to a so-called ancestral homeland, in-group/out-group rivalry, as well as the policies of “revenge” and “national defense”. The research that went into supporting this thesis was firmly anchored in the belief that, though La Guerre des boutons may be appreciated as a text in isolate, it is best understood when viewed within a broad setting. Therefore, in addition to analyzing structural, thematic, textual and paratexual aspects of Pergaud’s novel, the present study draws heavily from the works of eminent historians, sociologists and linguists, as well as literary sources, in order to better understand the relationship between La Guerre des boutons and its context. In demonstrating the depth and sincerity of the nationalism underlying Louis Pergaud’s novel, this thesis challenges the notion that La Guerre des boutons is simply a “coming of age” story. It also questions the validity of interpretations that identify La Guerre des boutons as primarily a satirical tale whose message is strongly anti-war. The recognition of the work’s nationalist underpinnings leads to the realization of a need for an in-depth reexamination of the character of this novel, as well as of its place within the literary spectrum.

Au tournant du XXe siècle, et de façon de plus en plus prononcée jusqu’à la veille de la seconde guerre mondiale, la littérature de langue française se met à attribuer aux bêtes des capacités traditionnellement réservées à l’humain. Celles-ci possèdent, découvre-t-on, comme nous, une riche vie affective et émotionnelle, interagissent avec leur environnement en configurant, par production et interprétation de signes, un univers subjectif propre, communiquent avec les autres êtres vivants de manière complexe au moyen de diverses formes langagières, raisonnent, pensent intelligemment, ou encore vivent comme des individus ou des personnes dotés d’une histoire singulière. En somme, à une époque où prédominent, en philosophie, en science, en littérature, le paradigme anthropocentriste, des conceptions réductionnistes de la vie animale, les bêtes littéraires deviennent des sujets, elles se voient octroyer, par tout un ensemble d’écrivains, une existence. Celle-ci s’avère la plupart du temps énigmatique : la lecture et l’écriture ont dès lors pour objet son dévoilement, le déchiffrement mais aussi l’interrogation et la configuration du « grimoire » (Genevoix) animal. Notamment inspiré par cette métaphore heuristique, je souhaite dans cette thèse étudier comment, entre 1891 et 1938, la prose littéraire de langue française, donc toute une variété d’écrits, recrée l’existence animale, tente d’appréhender la nature concrète de la vie des bêtes et les relations que nous entretenons avec elles. Il s’agit finalement de mesurer la dimension éthique de ces textes qui, en déconstruisant l’anthropocentrisme, aident à repenser la façon dont nous considérons les bêtes et notre cohabitation avec elles. / At the turn of the twentieth century and increasingly until the Second World War, French-language literature started to provide animals with capacities that were traditionally reserved for humans. In the relevant texts, animals have a rich emotional life, they interact and communicate with their environment and other living beings in numerous and complex ways ; by producing and interpreting signs, they construct a subjective world of their own. They demonstrate, moreover, amazing reasoning and cognitive abilities and original personalities. In short, at a time when, in philosophy, science and literature, prevail the anthropocentric paradigm and reductionist conceptions of animal life, literary animals become subjects, they are granted, by a whole set of writers, an existence. This existence is most of the time enigmatic : reading and writing therefore involve its unveiling, the deciphering but also the questioning and configuration of the animal "grimoire" (Genevoix). Inspired in particular by this heuristic metaphor, I wish in this piece of research to study how, between 1891 and 1938, French-language literary prose, thus a whole variety of writings, recreates animal lives, tries to apprehend the concrete nature of animals and the relationships we have with them. My final goal is to measure the ethical dimension of these texts which, by deconstructing anthropocentrism, help to rethink the way we view animals and our coexistence with them.