Literature Network » Victor Hugo

Signs of origin: Victor Hugo's Bug-Jargal.

Content courtesy of

From: Nineteenth-Century French Studies
Date: 20080322
Author:Bonin, Kathrine M.

Victor Hugo's controversial Bug-Jargal (published 1820, revised 1826) is often read as either negrophile or negrophobe, monarchist or pro-revolution: an ongoing critical debate that stems in part from the novel's own fundamental contradictions. The revised Bug-largal endeavors to confront the Revolution (both in Haiti and in mainland France) without glossing over its complexities, introducing the formal aesthetic opposition of the sublime and grotesque in an ambitious effort to bring the chaos of revolutionary Terror within the higher order of Romantic art. However, grotesque elements ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Victor Hugo

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.