"Être Chateaubriand ou rien". Aspects socio-culturels de la recherche d'absolu chez Victor Hugo

Abstract

If observed from far (from Eastern Middle Europe, for instance), Victor Hugo's work might seem depending only and absolutely on French culture history. The author of this article shows that at the light of the theory of the civilisation process (N. Elias) this literature is born in the context of the monachic centralism when the renewal is necessary after the Revolution's pains, and so a new élite is emerging.