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School of Modern Languages and Cultures

Weeks 4-5

Core reading

Henri Charrière, Papillon (Paris: Laffont, 1969) [please buy the Laffont 'Pocket' edition].

Advance preparation for seminar discussion

Week 4

  1. Why do you think this was such a commercially successful memoir?
  2. 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
  3. 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?
  4. How would you classify this text in terms of literary genre?

Week 5

  1. 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')
  2. Identify and discuss at least three of the principal techniques of coercive governance and prisoner resistance apparent in the text.
  3. Identify and explore the function of money in the penal colony such as it is encountered in Papillon
  4. 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.