The death penalty occupies an essential place in Victor Hugo's work, notably in his narrative work where he emphasizes the rhetoric resources in attempts to convince his reader of the necessity of abolishing this practice which he considers "barbaric". This memoir suggests a reading of this rhetoric, concentrating on various specific Hugolian arguments and suggesting a global vision of his reasoning. The first chapter demonstrates that the opposition between law and his application lies at the root of the judicial criticism according to Hugo, from which also stems the question of death penalty to begin with. We then study the genesis and the functioning of multiple arguments depicting the consistency and persistency of Hugo's reasoning, these arguments being interpreted from novel to novel. Finally, in the third chapter, we analyze history's role as a meta-argument of the abolishment; the historical development often structuring the opposition of Hugo's theory regarding the excessive use of capital punishment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.79944 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Hardel, Frédéric |
| Contributors | Duquette, Jean-Pierre (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Département de langue et littérature françaises.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002151584, proquestno: AAIMQ98444, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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