Le grand saut : de Jean Giraudoux à Maylis de Kerangal

Giraudoux and Kerangal both wrote texts on sport, from opposite ends of the twentieth century. The tone of their work is very different, yet some common traits can be discerned: a link between politics and sport, the evocation of records and stars of the moment. Above all, in both Giraudoux’s novel Aventures de Jerôme Bardini and Kerangal’s Corniche Kennedy we find sporting bodies. In both cases, the image is that of a woman diving: a simultaneously sporting, erotic, and mystical experience… which can teach us something about the status of woman in both epochs.