Analysis of the Process of Animalization and Reification of the Woman Accused of “Horizontal Collaboration” in Fiction

Abstract

In the wake of the Second World War, during the Liberation, a considerable number of women accused of «horizontal collaboration» with the enemy have been publicly severely punished by the population. Arrested without warrant, then physically and psychologically bad treated, even till death, «the clean beasts» will become the symbol of a triple adultery, to the Country, to society and to the family. Starting from a multidisciplinary perspective, and through a novelesque selection, we will examine the literary representation of the dehumanisation process set up by novelists to show how this goes through the victim’s animalization and reification.