Weeks 4-5
Core reading
Henri Charrière, Papillon (Paris: Laffont, 1969) [please buy the Laffont 'Pocket' edition].
Advance preparation for seminar discussion
Week 4
- Why do you think this was such a commercially successful memoir?
- What image of himself does Charrière seek to present to the reader? Discuss, in particular:
- religion
- his negotiation of the question of his guilt or innocence of the crime for which he was initially sentenced
- his ethical or moral values
- his awareness of and interactions with other cultures
- the motivation(s) for his escape attempts
- his relationships with other convicts
- his resilience and any other salient character traits
- How plausible is the plot? (Identify and be ready to discuss examples.) Is there variation in the way the story is narrated as the text advances?
- How would you classify this text in terms of literary genre?
Week 5
- What light does Papillon shed on le bagne as one instrument of colonization among others? (See also Coquet and the article by Sanchez, "'Les incorrigibles" du bagne')
- Identify and discuss at least three of the principal techniques of coercive governance and prisoner resistance apparent in the text.
- Identify and explore the function of money in the penal colony such as it is encountered in Papillon
- Discuss masculinity and kinship in the text.*
Further reading
- Coquet, M., 'Totalisation carcérale en terre coloniale: la carcéralisation à Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (XIXe-XXe siècle)', Cultures & Conflits 90 (2013): 59-76, accessible via CAIRN.
- Collier, R., 'Sex, Gender and the (Criminal) Bodies of Men', Masculinities, Crime and Criminology: Men, Heterosexuality and the Criminal(ised) Other (London: SAGE, 1998), ch. 1, pp.1-35. See here.
- Darrieussecq, M., Rapport de police: Accusations de plagiat de autres modes de surveillance de la fiction (Paris: POL, 2010). See here.
- Didier, V., Papillon libéré: la vie d'Henri Charrière (Montmélian: Fontaine de Siloé, 2006). See here.
- Dufour, P., Les Bagnes de Guyane (Paris: Pygmalion, 2006), in particular 'Au royaume de l'Administration Pénitentiaire', ch.8, pp.133-151.
- Godfroy, M., Bagnards (Paris: Seuil, 2010), in particular 'L'Univers des Bannis', Ch.2, pp. 77-116.
- Ménager, G., Les Quatre vérités de Papillon (Paris: La Table Ronde, 1970). See here.
- Michelot, J.-C., La Guillotine sèche: Histoire du bagne de Cayenne (Paris: Fayard, 1981), in particular 'PAPILLON : Le Tartarin du bagne', pp.307-311.
- Petit, J.-G., Histoire des prisons en France, 1789-2000 (Toulouse: Privat, 2002). See here.
- Pierre, M., Le Dernier Exil: histoire des bagnes et des forçats (Paris: Gallimard, 1989), in particular "La belle", pp.166-205.
- Sanchez, J.-L., 'Les “incorrigibles” du bagne colonial de Guyane: Genèse et application d’une catégorie pénale', Genèses 2, 91 (2013): 71-95, accessible via CAIRN.
- Sanchez, J.-L., À perpétuité: Relégués au bagne de Guyane (Paris: Vendemiaire, 2013), in particular 'S'évader', pp.226-254.
- Schmitz, P., Matricule 46635: l'extraordinaire aventure du forçat qui inspira Papillon (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002). See here.
- Toth, S. A., Beyond Papillon: The French Overseas Penal Colonies, 1854-1952 (Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2006). See here.
Slides
For Week 4 lecture slides click here. For Week 5 slides click here.