Von Ebrennac, Prince of Denmark?

Citation

Kidd W (1987) Von Ebrennac, Prince of Denmark?. French Studies Bulletin, 7 (22), pp. 17-19. https://doi.org/10.1093/frebul/7.22.17

Abstract
First paragraph: Le Silence de la Mer contains references to Macbeth and Othello, but not to Hamlet. Yet a number of textual and contextual details suggests that the latter, a preoccupation of the artist-engraver Jean Bruller (Vercors) since the 1920s, exercised a powerful but subliminal influence on the composition of the recit. It was in 1942 that he began a series of illustrations for the play, finally published in his own adaptation in 1965. The contemporary significance Vercors saw in the original for wartime events and personalities (H, xiii-xiv), his Hamlet-like indecision during the 'bataille postiche' of May 1940: 'je decouvris que, dans l'action, je n'etais pas un chef mais un intellectuel radoteur. Je me rappelais Hamlet, hesitant si le spectre qu'il avait vu etait bien son pere ou le diable', and the personal links between the author and his German protagonist, invite re-examination of the way Le Silence de la mer transcends the historical actuality which inspired it.

Journal
French Studies Bulletin: Volume 7, Issue 22

People

Dr Bill Kidd

Honorary Senior Research Fellow, French