Un homme pareil aux autres, by René Maran, through the prism of genetic criticism

history of the text and genetic file

Abstract

Un homme pareil aux autres, by René Maran, is a novel known for its love story and its autobiographical inspiration. But it is also a text that had been constantly rewritten since the 1920s until its final version in 1947, published by Arc-en-ciel. This novel has known several printed lives and several titles since the publication of an extract from the Roman d’un nègre in the journal Je sais tout in November 15, 1924 up to the publication of Journal sans date in the literary periodical “OEuvres libres” in June 1927 and Défense d’aimer, published in the “Feuillets littéraires” by Arthème Fayard in 1932. The work of rewriting, obvious in the different printed versions and the access to the author’s manuscripts, prompt us to consider the novel from the point of view of the genetic criticism. This article aims to explain the history of the text by presenting a genetic file composed of undated manuscripts that we have proposed to classify.