LE POUVOIR DE L’ÊTRE ET L’ÊTRE DE POUVOIR. LA DISCURSIVITÉ DE L’ACTE DE LANGAGE EN ACTE DE POUVOIR DANS ANTONIA DE GEORGE SAND.

Antonia is a novel of George Sand, which deals with class conflict between nobles and roturiers, on the value of birth. Being born noble is seen as of high rank, which gives supremacy to the noble over the roturier, and therefore power over him. The novel is an illustration of the value of power, no more only on that of the noble over the roturier, but also of that of the human being over his fellow. It is through speech that power is shown, speech becomes the manifestation of the power of the speaker over his listener. From there come the following questions : what makes the speech of the speaker an act of power linguistically expressed ? On what stands the power of the speaker over the listener and what is the aim of its utterance ? Since we are dealing with speech, that is why we have chosen the discourse analysis approach, following the semasiological order. The analysis has made to distinguish two types of power : the natural and the artificial power. The first shows the supremacy of the being over the other at three levels: the high social background of the noble over the roturier, the authority of the parent over the child and that of the husband over his wife. It has come out that the nature herself sets hierarchy on the relations between humans by giving power to some over others. The second deals with money, the owning of propriety and self praise, they show how human being through his efforts gets to be over the others and detain power over them. These elements are sources of power, give power to the being, and their discourse becomes that of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]