L'autorité de la sentence dans Les Romans de Montherlant

Abstract

In the novels of Montherlant, maxim and sentence can only note the failure of their enterprise. The use of setentious propositions seems to come into conflict with the "amoral" posture of the author, whose individual thinking, far beyond the right-minded discourse of the majority, criticizes customs of society. By means of his view on language, reality and representation, Montherlant destroys the values of his speech. Because of the modifications and the contradictions that are inherent to life itself, language becomes the subject of creation and destruction. He is only a moralist in the way that his novels focus on reflexion and attitude towards reality. The elements of antiquity are submitted to significant transformations that enable them to fit in the novel. Contemporary philosophy or moralist essays of the XVIIth and XVIIIth century (Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Chamfort and Vauvenargues), inspire his speech only for the possibility they offer to make personal and pagan statements.