The notion of “fraternity” or “brotherhood” seemed quite obsolete for a long time but has now made a comeback in contemporary discourse. However, this apparently familiar notion is highly opaque, not only because of its metaphorical nature, but also because of the contradictions that run through it. To better elucidate it, we need to look not only at its linguistic formation and its main historical and political uses, but also at what happened to it in literary history when it seemed to have become untimely in politics or in social sciences (particularly after 1848). Its institutional inactivity was offset by a particularly brilliant literary destiny. To do this, we'll be taking a closer look at the works of Sade, Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and Thomas Mann.
Alexandre de Vitry is an Associate Professor of French Literature at Sorbonne University. His work focuses on the intersection of literature with other discourses, notably social, political and religious, from the late 18th century to the present day. He is the author of three essays: L'Invention de Philippe Muray (2011), Conspirations d'un solitaire. L'individualisme civique de Charles Péguy (2015) and Le droit de choisir ses frères? Une histoire de la fraternité (2023), and has participated in numerous scholarly editions (Péguy, Alain, Proust, Julien Green).