The Subjective Double and the Enigma of Criminal Madness in Babel-Ville, by Joseph Bialot

Abstract

Through this article we would like to explore not only the image of the double but also its functions in Bialot’s novel Babel-ville. To do so, we would like to take into account those theoretical studies that Jung, Rank or Jourde and Tortonese (among others) have carried out on this subject from a literary and s psychological point of view. We will analyse the main character’s criminal madness as a proce-dure to generate a double which does not match up with the figure of a human be-ing, as if our main character’s pulsions (his unconscious part) were not human at all. So our main purpose in this article will focus on the study of Bernard, the main male character of Bialot’s novel, Babel-ville, which should be considered as a good sample of what literary criticism is inclined to call black novel.