Louis-Ferdinand Céline delighted in painting the portrait of a chaotic, infernal world. His fictional works have been seen as a survey of life’s disasters, with the proximity of death the only certitude. Céline doesn’t expect anything from mankind. But while he may not believe in man, he might believe in mother…
The interest of this study, which covers all of his novels (excluding the satires), correspondence and interviews, is to offer up a hitherto unexplored – yet no less real – facet of Céline. Implied or described, witch or good fairy, invasive or inaccessible, pathetic or sublime, mothers stroll through all of his novels. There are no letters and few interviews in which she doesn’t crop up. Her effect on the writer’s personality is such, that, like Proust, Céline (who chose his grand-mother’s first name for his pen name) could have written, my mother and grand-mother: my models in all things. Seen from a maternal angle, our reading of his oeuvre is greatly affected, even transformed. We discover a Céline singing the praises of contemplation, obstinate defender of happiness, partisan of life, glowing with a joyful maternal heritage.