A modern “Babel” at the mountain tops: a sanatorial city and a therapeutic utopia in Robert de Traz's Hours of silence and Paul Gadenne's Siloé
Abstract
Often perceived as the result of empirical speculation, the sanatorium, intended for the treatment of tuberculosis patients in the first half of the 20th century, was at first sight a therapeutic utopia originating in the medical profession. In this enclosed space, it is the doctor that exercises the authority and their recommendations have the value of injunctions. However, a reversal of this order is depicted in two 20th-century novels: Les “Heures de silence” by the Swiss writer Robert de Traz (1884-1951), and Siloé by Paul Gadenne (1907-1956), a French author who was himself a regular visitor to such care institutions. In these works, the unity of place - the sanatorium - becomes a convenient device for questioning the world of the healthy on three levels: the ego, the relationship to others and the relationship to natural space. Because the "tubercular condition" neutralises the differences between individuals, it questions the primacy of health and paradoxically outlines a balanced lifestyle based on the idiorhythmic alternation between solitude, social life and immanence.
Keywords:
Robert de Traz, Paul Gadenne, sanatorium, utopia, disease, tuberculosis, mountainReferences
Antoniotti, S. Pellissier, V., Siméoni, M.C. et al. (2002). Déclaration obligatoire des maladies infectieuses. Des maladies « pestilentielles » aux maladies « émergentes », Santé Publique, 2 (Vol. 14), 165-178. https://doi.org/10.3917/spub.022.0165 (Crossref)
Aristote. (1959). Éthique à Nicomaque (J. Tricot trad.). Paris : Éditions Vrin.
Barthes, R. (2002). Comment vivre ensemble, Cours et séminaires au Collège de France (1976-1977). C. Coste (éd.). Paris : Éditions SEUIL/IMEC. (Crossref)
Barthes, R. (2002). Esquisse d’une société sanatoriale. Dans M. Alphant et N. Léger (dir.), [catalogue] R.-B : Roland Barthes : exposition présentée au Centre Pompidou, galerie 2, 27 novembre -10 mars. Paris : Seuil, Éditions du Centre Pompidou, Imec.
Boudard, A. (1972). L’Hôpital, une Hostobiographie. Paris : Éditions de la Table Ronde.
Cremnitzer, J.-B. (2005). Architecture et santé, le temps du sanatorium en Europe. Paris : Éditions A. et J. Picard.
De Traz, R. (1934). Les « Heures de silence ». Montrouge : Éditions Bernard Grasset.
Dessertine, D. et Faure, O. (1988). Combattre la tuberculose (1900-1940). Lyon : Presses universitaires de Lyon.
Foucault, M. (1963). Naissance de la clinique. Paris : Presses universitaires de France.
Gadenne, P. (1974) [1941]. Siloé. Paris : Éditions du Seuil.
Guillaume, P. (1986). Du Désespoir au salut : les tuberculeux aux 19e et 20e siècles. Paris : Éditions Aubier.
Héricourt, J. (1920). Les Maladies des sociétés, Tuberculose, Syphilis, Alcoolisme et Stérilité. Paris : Éditions Ernest Flammarion.
Siestrunck, R. (2013). Le roman du sanatorium. Val-des-Prés : Éditions Transhumances.
Académie de Grenoble https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8729-060X
License
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Papers of the journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.