Les Caves du Vatican, ou la sotie de l'acte gratuit

Abstract

During his time in North Africa, André Gide fell gravely ill. It was this very illness, this existential experience that would liberate him from determinism. We probably owe the origin of the soties to this experience. The term sotie is a gidean adaptation of the term sottie, which in the Middle Ages denoted a dramatical genre where the actors dressed as jesters criticised the vices of their society. In this sense, the soties are classic and modern works at the same time, because they bring back an old genre but are open to new techniques. Nevertheless, what makes Les Caves du Vatican an essentially modern work is in the new approach that Gide makes to logical reason, which is best illustrated when investigating the work of ideas and previous philosophies.