МОТИВИ РЕЛИГИЈЕ И ЦРКВЕ У РОМАНУ ФРЕДЕРИКА БЕГБЕДЕА „УПОМОЋ, МОЛИМ ЗА ОПРОШТАЈ“
Motives of religion and church in Frédéric Beigbeder’s novel "Help, I beg for forgiveness"

Author(s): Milena Marinković
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Language and Literature Studies, French Literature
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Frédéric Beigbeder; Contemporary French Literature
Summary/Abstract: Novel "Help, I beg for forgiveness", written by Frédéric Beigbeder, one of the most important contemporary French authors, can be read as metaphor of our time, in which the spiritual values and the quest for freedom are replaced by consumerism, the entertainment industry and (craving for) material resources, in this piece embodied in the main character, Octave Parango. As a talent scout for a Paris fashion company, Octave comes to Moscow with the task of finding a girl to whom "three billion women would like to resemble". The dictatorship of youth and beauty are just the first step in unraveling the decadent world of fashion and marketing in a confession which, from the beginning to the end, forms the novel, told by the main character to the priest in the temple of Christ The Savior. The motive of this church has multiple symbolic links with the relations between France and Russia, while as a location of novel remains at the margin. Equally strikingly, the absence of the motives of religion and the priest who carefully listens to Octave’s sins will culminate, in the end, in one of the Beigbeder's satirical turnovers at the very end, when all hero’s thoughts of freedom and love will receive their tragic-comical ending in a recounted story of finding God, leaving the reader with a bitter question whether there is forgiveness and salvation in this, modern world.

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