Although Barbey does not share his contemporaries’ passion for sleepwalking and magnetism, he admits the benefits a novelist can reap from using such topics. These mysterious phenomena express the presence, at the core of reality, of an “invading surnaturalism”. This paper aims to uncover the specific way in which Barbey uses sleepwalking in Un Prêtre marié, his challenge being to enhance the spiritual meaning of this extraordinary state of conscience, in order to bring it into the mystique fold.
CLIL theme: 4027 -- SCIENCES HUMAINES ET SOCIALES, LETTRES -- Lettres et Sciences du langage -- Lettres -- Etudes littéraires générales et thématiques