Between the sea and the cliff: an anthropological analysis of the notion of Nature in Victon Hugo's Workers of the Sea

Abstract

This article analyzes the universe of
the French writer Victor Hugo and investigates how
its conceptions of nature – marked by the romantic
values of the 19th century – gain body and density
in the novel The workers of the sea (1866). This ar-
ticle focuses on the epic of man against Nature and
follows the life path of Gilliatt: a fisherman who not
only embodies the values of his creator, but also stan-
ds for a symbol of the tragedy of individuals from
the working class, who are considered worthy only
for their sacrifice and heroism. Adopted as a meta-
phor in his narrative, the mixture between different
elements, between human beings and non-human
beings in the flow of images created by Hugo indica-
tes a kind of “becoming” (devenir) (Deleuze; Guatta-
ri, 1997), in which the intensities that compose the
author’s imaginary generate surprising multiplicities.