Under the sign of Eros Toward deciphering the aesthetic thought of Mérimée

Mérimée’s critical thought, as revealed in the fields where it expresses itself with a particular clarity, those of the aesthetics of the little and the conception of poetry, is founded on a requirement of unity that goes against the dominant tendencies of the century. Under a psychoanalytical light, this requirement—or better put, this desire—attests to the supremacy of the life drive in Mérimée’s creation.