La Fable des animaux selon Jules Supervielle

Supervielle’s beasts gallop, swim and fly because they inhabit “la fable du monde” (the world’s fable). The occurrence of animals in literature since the end of the nineteenth century is undoubtedly a characteristic feature of the period. Their appearance marks a new kind of attention to life and a new attitude towards the human phenomenon. Supervielle’s personal touch was to disrobe old mankind in order to endow the unknown animal, to reduce existence that is human par excellence to the life of living beings par excellence: the animals.