L’esthétique du décalage dans Les Sorcières de la République de Chloé Delaume : une joyeuse dystopie

Chloé Delaume’s esthetic of incongruity is based on fantastical exaggeration and a comical rewriting of the dystopian genre, introducing a literary and political reflection on cruelty. In Les Sorcières de la République (The Witches of the Republic), the goddesses of Olympus seize power in France to impose a deceptive feminist revolution. Responsible for a collective amnesia called the Grand Blanc, the Sibyl, prophetess and adviser to the gods, is tried for democratic hostage-taking, becoming a media voice that retrospectively bears witness to events. Her speech exposes the wounded flesh and voices of women under a despotic patriarchal society, inviting us to consider women as an autonomous social group and to deconstruct archaic notions of female corporeality. The narrative is experimental and provocative, aiming to awaken civic consciousness. Through antithesis, the dystopia highlights a crisis that rethinks the place of women as free political subjects, while reflecting on feminism, gender and sisterhood. Ambiguous and fluid, it offers a carnivalesque political imagination, depicting an inverted world in Bakhtin’s sense. The over-mediatisation of Sibylle oscillates between tragedy and comedy, shifting between smiles, irony and lamentation. The characters’ plea is a mirror held up to the reader, prompting reflection on the future desired by all.