L’antibiographisme de Lanson

G. Lanson accords such an important role to biography that he is often presented as a disciple of Sainte-Beuve. From the preface to Hommes et livres, however, he distinguishes himself from Sainte-Beuve and his biographical criticism. This article interrogates this divergence, analyses the arguments with which he refutes the Beuvian method, seeks to understand the function with which he imbues biography, and, finally, specifies the relations which he envisages between individual, collective, and œuvre in the domain of creation.