Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice has met a tremendous success since publication in 1979 and has been translated in many languages, including Japanese and Russian; it has been made into a movie by Alan Pakula, with Meryl Streep in the unforgettable leading role, and even gave birth to an opera. As usual William Styron gets down to brass tacks with one of the most awe-inspiring themes of the twentieth century : the final solution and the horror of the death-camps. In this bilingual study the emphasis is laid on the complexity of the narrative technique, the link between sexuality and violence, and the entanglement of historical, religious, philosophical and psychoanalytical references that make up the fabric of personal drama and human tragedy that Sophie's Choice represents.

Patrick BADONNEL is a full professor of American literature at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris III) and former chair of the Agrégation. He is the author of several books on American contemporary writers (with C. Maisonnat) and has already published a book and several papers on William Styron's work. Also interested in the contemporary short story he is the author (with C. Maisonnat) of La Nouvelle Anglo-saxonne. Initiation à une lecture psychanalytique (Hachette Supérieur, 1998).

Cet ouvrage est le fruit de la collaboration entre les éditions Armand Colin et le Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance, établissement public d'enseignement qui dispense des formations de tous niveaux à plus de 350 000 inscrits répartis dans le monde entier.

Cette contribution scientifique d'enseignants chercheurs de l'Université française s'intègre dans les préparations assurées par le CNED aux CAPES et aux agrégations d'anglais qui comprennent aussi des conseils méthodologiques et des entraînements aux épreuves des concours avec correction personnalisée.

General context and historical background. Narrative strategies at work in Sophie's Choice. The aesthetics of perversion and the European axis of evil in Sophie's Choice. Sexuality, textuality and liquidity. La confrontation pathologique des désirs. Totalitarisme et schizophrénie. Théologie et téléologie dans Sophie's Choice. Éthique et esthétique du texte.

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