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.

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(Résumé en français) "Exercices de style" est-elle une oeuvre simplement comique et acrobatique ? Sa réception positive mais plutôt superficielle auprès du public semble avoir dissimulé ses aspects plus profonds et plus problématiques. A nos yeux, en revanche, les 99 "Exercices" d'écriture sont tout à fait aptes à éclairer les problèmes essentiels de la création littéraire et de la transmission de l'énoncé qu'est la communication verbale. La structure multi-dimensionnelle du livre, où les "Exercices" s'enchaînent, se complètent et se répondent, nous rend sensibles non seulement aux réseaux intratextuels qu'entretiennent les "Exercices", mais également aux liens intertextuels qui lient cetains d'entre eux et les discours littéraires et non littéraires préexistants. D'autres "Exercices" témoignent du regard autoréflexif de l'écrivain, ceux qui peuvent être considérés comme autoparodie. Par ailleurs, la virtuosité des variations stylistiques exige parfois du lecteur une attention particulière - face à quelques variations hermétiques et presque inintelligibles, on devra recourir à d'autres composants du livre qui serviront de "traductions". La terme "traduction" devra être compris non seulement dans le sens de la transmission de messages entre différentes langues, mais aussi dans le sens de la transposition d'un signifiant dans d'autres signifiants, ou bien de la "réécriture" d'un énoncé, tout en restant dans la même langue. Si le principe des "Exercices de style" est de renouveler à l'infini des exercices d'écrire, ou plutôt de réécrire LE texte original - "qui est d'ailleurs inexistant" -, nous pouvons poser, semble-t-il, que la Littérature est basée sur le même procédé de tâtonnements,auquel le lecteur est enctraîné à participer. (Abstract in English) Is "Exercises in style" just a comic and acrobatic book ? The fact that the readers welcomed it so favourably - but rather superficially - seems to have overshadowed its more serious and problematic aspects. In our opinion indeed, Queneau's ninety-nine writing "Exercises" can clearly shed light on the essential problems of literary creation and utterance transmission, i.e. verbal communication. The book presents an intricate structure:the "Exercises" are linked together, echo each other and complement one another. Through this multidimensional structure, we can see the intratextual networks between the "Exercises" as well as their intertextual relations with pre-existent literary and non-literary discourses. Other "Exercises" show the author's autoreflective, autoparodic attitude. Furthermore, the virtuosity of the stylistic variations sometimes requires particular attention from the reader. To understand some abstruse, sometimes almost unintelligible "Exercises", the reader has to resort to other parts of the book, which will serve as "translation" for these enigmatic passages. The word "translation" here means not only transmission of messages from a language to another, but also transposition of a signifier to other signifiers - in other words, "rewriting" of an utterance in the same language. If the principle of "Exercices in style" is to practice writing endlessly, or rather rewriting of THE original text - "which actually does not exist" - , we can reasonably deduce that Literature is based on the same trial and error process the reader will inevitably take part in.