“Ce que j’appelais moi”: sujet et mensonge chez Pierre Jean Jouve

This article analyzes the treatment of subjectivity and self-deception in Hécate and Vagadu by Pierre Jean Jouve, positioning his work at the core of modernist concerns. While Jouve’s formal techniques—such as interior monologue, shifting perspectives, and narrative fragmentation—align with the modernist aesthetic, it is above all his radical interrogation of introspection and the instability of identity that situates his novels within the modernist movement. Through the main character, the actress Catherine Crachat, Jouve explores the intricate relationship between subjectivity and fabrication, revealing how identity is shaped by self-deception and unconscious illusions. In Hécate, the confessional framework exposes the impossibility of self-transparency. Through theatrical and cinematic metaphors, Jouve portrays Catherine’s identity as a performance rooted in illusion and falsehood. Vagadu uses the psychoanalytic process to dismantle unconscious deceptions and confront the fictive narratives that underpin the protagonist’s sense of self. By examining the pervasive presence of illusion, theatricality, and self-fabrication, this article demonstrates how Jouve destabilizes the very notion of authentic subjectivity. His work engages deeply with the modernist crisis of selfhood and truth, where introspection becomes inseparable from narrative invention and the fabrication of identity.