LA REPRÉSENTATION DU MASSACRE DE LA SAINT-BARTHÉLEMY DANS QUATREVINGTTREIZE DE VICTOR HUGO

Abstract

The clanging of Saint Bartholomew has never ceased to resound in the collective memory of the French. Immediately after the massacre, each person, according to his party persuasion, gives his version of the facts, invents a legend, enriches the story, amplifies and distorts the facts; and in every century, the controversy rages anew. The massacre has gradually lost its religious significance, rather to be redeployed for partisan political ends, whatever the era. In his book entitled Quatre-vingt treize, Hugo denounces all forms of absolute power. He denounced the Terror of the French Revolution, and through it, the episode of the Commune, without neglecting all the crimes committed by the old regime and its kings. The evocation of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew in an eponymous chapter fits into this context. This article seeks to demonstrate how Hugo uses the Saint Bartholomew incident to create an echo of the historical and political context of his times.