Pour la connaissance des bêtes: Colette et Pergaud
Knowing the Animals: Colette et Pergaud

Summary/Abstract: Colette and Louis Pergaud differ in style and themes of their writing. However, they unite in theirlove for animals and the desire to paint them in a truthful way. There is another desire behind thefirst one, that of bringing a greater understanding of the animal world to the public. In order toachieve this, Colette and Pergaud paint humans behaving towards animals in radically differentways. Indeed, while some of their characters show deep empathy for animals, others are wary ofthem and even hate them. Jealousy also plays an important role. The present study focuses on allthese elements, in order to identify the ways in which Colette and Pergaud use the animal themeto link it to universal and profoundly humanist subjects. The relationship between the human andthe non-human is, for these precursors of eco-sensitivity, a measure of their value, and thus theyachieve two objectives: awakening the consciences of their contemporaries and shedding a newlight on the relations between species.

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