Représentation de la violence étatique à travers la peine de mort chez VICTOR HUGO (LE DERNIER JOUR D’UN CONDAMNÉ) et le génocide rwandais chez SCHOLASTIQUE MUKASONGA (NOTRE-DAME-DU-NIL)

This thesis analyzes the various forms of State violence represented by the death penalty and genocide in Victor Hugo's and Scholastique Mukasonga's books Le Dernier jour d'un condamné and Notre Dame du Nil. The death penalty is a punishment established by law that consists of condemning and executing in a violent and inhumane manner someone found guilty of committing a serious crime. Genocide is a crime against humanity aimed at the total or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, or religious group. It results in the violent and rapid death of many individuals. The Rwandan genocide involved the extermination of the Tutsi by the Hutu. The common denominator of both these themes is the planned, violent, and atrocious death. The various aspects of State violence are addressed in these 19th and 21st century texts from the perspective of Derrida, which is one of sovereignty, grounded in a relationship of power and not of justice. Death penalty and genocide, sources of pyscho-somatic torments, are unnecessary punishments, which according to Hugo and Mukasonga, should be banished from human environments.