L'opposition ville-campagne au contact de l'hybridité dans Lélia de George Sand

Abstract

In Lélia (1833), a formally hybrid and remarkably sustained exploration of passion, faith, and skepticism, Sand challenges her own normative binary distinctions between urban excitement and pastoral calm. Through a consideration of the existential experience, the psychological effect, and the metaphysical meaning of living life too quickly, Lélia demonstrates that passions, when poorly extinguished, can reignite even in the calmest of settings, while the thirst for wisdom and the power of self-reflection can resurface in the midst of cosmopolitan courtesan life-style. The city thus represents more than the locus of urgency, contingency, and action; and the countryside serves as more than the haven for measured thought, retired activity, and deeper wisdom.