Criminal associations in Sade?s La Nouvelle Justine and Histoire de Juliette

ZORRILLA, NATALIA LORENA

Participation, Collaboration, and Association in the Eighteenth Century

Honoré Champion

Año: 2023; p. 251 - 266

The following chapter aims at examining the problematic nature of criminal associations in Sade?s La Nouvelle Justine and Histoire de Juliette. Sade?s cruel libertine characters often express individualist,egoistic and isolationist ideas in their philosophical dissertations, by which they seek to justify their criminal deeds and their rejection of the social contract. However, their theoretical principles do not seem to obliterate their active social life and sexually gregarious m?urs. In effect, these characters often form criminal societies and act in complicity with each other with the objective of experiencing various (forbidden) pleasures. Are these mere strategic alliances or is libertine friendship possible? Arguing against the predominance of individualism in Sadean libertinage, this essay seeks to highlight the centrality of the collective dimension of the libertines? lifestyle and of their sense of belonging to a libertine community.The first section of this chapter addresses the problem of the sustainability of criminal societies, and contends that, for Sade?s libertines, the preeminence of personal interest does not (always) entail the preeminence of individual self-preservation. In the second section, betrayals among these characters are interpreted as the purging mechanism of their groups, motivated by the search for the preservation of the libertine community as a whole. Accordingly, ?salvations?, i.e., the protection of another libertine?s life, are shown to contribute to that same objective. The last section is devoted to the libertines? cruel orgiastic sacrificial rituals, which are characterized as a congregating activity that strengthens their group unity.