ABSTRACT
In 'Vingtième siècle,' the penultimate section of La Légende des siècles (1859), Hugo presents a double perspective on history, looking both back at the foundering 'ancien monde' (P2 809) 1 and forward to a lofty vision of future progress in the twin poems 'Pleine mer' and 'Plein ciel,' respectively. Several years later, he draws on similar imagery in his epic novel, Les Travailleurs de la mer (1866), where the solitary hero Gilliatt must do battle with the forces of wind and tide to rescue a precious shipwreck. While critics have noted the parallels between Lèviathan in 'Pleine mer' and Durande in Les Travailleurs, they have neglected to comment on the inverse relation of the two vessels, the first embodying humanity's struggle with the elements, the second its triumph over nature. At the same time, the apparent metamorphosis of Hugo's anti-imperial stance in 'Vingtième siècle'—a stance that likewise permeates Les Misérables (1862)—into a more 'poetic' meditation on human ingenuity and creative potential in Les Travailleurs de la mer has remained largely unquestioned. Indeed, one might argue that the exiled writer's extensive reflections on genius in William Shakespeare (1864) had turned his interest from the socio-political arena to the realm of 'loftier,' aesthetic concerns. 2 To elucidate this issue, I propose to examine Les Travailleurs de la mer in the light of several recurrent motifs in 'Vingtième siècle' and in Hugo's writings on Shakespeare. My goal is to determine whether an image of present and future French history is, in fact, occulted in Les Travailleurs, or whether the novel instead represents a radical departure from Hugo's literary engagement as a republican outlaw.
