Relation entre l’individu et le groupe Cours

People need to live together, they depend on each other, this is what Plato describes in The Republic. Society is an organisation in which individuals work together to build a better society, a better group. "No man is an island" as John Donne wrote. 

In The Republic, Plato's most famous dialogue about politics in relation to individual happiness, the Greek philosopher promotes his ideal city and society, in which each individual enjoys justice and personal happiness. According to him, society works through what could be described as a system of give and take. Each of its members contributes his or her bit depending on his or her abilities and social status. Everyone's roles and places is thus carefully defined to serve the group as well as each and every individual. This organisation enables individuals to be integrated and to benefit from others' skills, while finding themselves much better off within than without the group. As essential parts of the same entity, these individuals are also very dependent on each other for their well-being, prosperity or survival. That's why individual desires and aspirations may sometimes be crushed to safeguard the common good. 

John Donne's poetic statement that "no man is an island" resonates with Plato's view of society as a close-knit community of mutually dependent individuals.

English	French
Give and take	Donnant-donnant
To thrive	Prospérer/se développer
To safeguard	Préserver/garder
Skills	Compétences
To crush	Écraser/anéantir
Close-knit	Soudé
Blessing	Bénédiction
Organically	Biologiquement
To trigger	Déclencher
To toll	Sonner le glas

In the Elizabethan era, the idea that an individual was part of a bigger whole was quite important. At that time, scholars studied the links between the microcosm and the macrocosm: what one does on an individual level has consequences on a greater level. Shakespeare's plays are an example of how writers at the time linked microcosm and macrocosm, the individual and the society. 

In the 16^th and up until the early 17^th centuries, the world was viewed as a system of correspondences between a macrocosm, nature and the universe, and microcosms, namely smaller-size entities such as a nation, society or an individual person. It was scholars' strong belief that whatever changes or upheavals took place in the microcosms would affect the macrocosm, and conversely. 

This world view, which was inherited from Ancient philosophers, puts the individual at the centre of everything, which implies taking responsibility for one's actions and decisions. In this respect, no individual born into the world and belonging to society can exist independently. Many plays by Shakespeare feature characters whose (mis)deeds have entailed critical consequences on their environment, Macbeth and King Lear among them.

English	French
Scholar	Érudit
Plagued	Gangréné
Ill-intended	Mal intentionné
Venal	Vénal/cupide
Eponymous	Éponyme
(Mis)deeds	Méfaits/actes
Upheaval/turmoil	Tourment/désordre
Fateful	En rapport avec le destin
To rave	Se déchaîner
Heath	La lande
Wrathful	Furieux (connotations religieuses)
Better judgement	Discernement
Hovel	Hutte
To moor	Amarrer
Barren	Stérile
Hatred	Haine
Unrest	Le désordre
Law and order	L'ordre public

For individuals to be able to coexist as part of the same community or society, they need to agree to follow the same laws, rules and conventions. They need to respect an authority. This subject is often addressed in utopian and dystopian fictions, the most famous utopian fiction being Utopia by Thomas More. 

Laws, rules and conventions are designed to secure justice and equality, and safeguard freedom for all, but it may also be used against individuals. This duality provides the raw material of utopian and dystopian fictions, which are designed to show the two sides of the same coin. 

Utopia comes from the Greek and means "nowhere," implying that the society it describes is ideal. Utopian worlds present readers with fictional worlds that represent enhanced versions of their reality, through which writers throw light on the flaws of existing societies and offer solutions and remedies – often in the form of alternative political and social systems. Thomas More's Utopia was the first such book written in England in 1516. He is actually responsible for coining the Greek word and related concept. Utopia consists of the fictitious account of a sailor on explorer Amerigo Vespucci's ship, who lands on an island called Utopia. From then on, More shows readers how a better society may be built to allow individuals to live together more peacefully. 

As a journalist pointed out in an article entitled "The Golden Age of Dystopias," published in the New Yorker in 2017, "Dystopias follow utopias the way thunder follows lightning. [...] a utopia is a paradise, a dystopia a paradise lost." What she means is that a dystopia is often a utopia gone wrong. Indeed, utopias rely on perfection and happiness as the norm, so anyone dissatisfied becomes potentially abnormal and suspect. This is how individual freedom happens to be gradually suppressed in order to make the world a better place.

English	French
Raw material	Matériau brut
Enhanced	Amélioré
Flaw	Défaut
Enshrined	Inscrit (ici)
To subjugate	Soumettre
Grief	Le chagrin
To brainwash	Effectuer un lavage de cerveau
To obliterate	Annihiler
Selfhood	Individualité
To merge	Se fondre
To entrust to	Confier à

For a society to work, everyone must agree to follow the same rules and conventions. Some people remain outside of society: they are outsiders. That subject is essential in literature and question the rules or conventions society creates. 

Agreeing to abide by the same rules and laws is an essential condition to peaceful coexistence, but may not always be enough for individuals to be accepted as legitimate members of a community or society. Indeed, individuals have to prove that they are trustworthy and willing to conform to the same standards. As literary figures, outsiders are the very embodiments of this quandary.  

The outsider was a stock character in Victorian novels in which it often served to denounce social hypocrisy and conformism.

English	French
To abide by	Respecter la loi
Trustworthy	Digne de confiance
Standards	Références
Embodiment	Incarnation
Quandary	Une complexité
Stock character	Personnage type
Prejudiced	Qui a des préjugés
Peculiar	Particulier
Gossip	Commère
To keep to oneself	Rester seul
Self-reliant	Autonome
Embedded	Enchâssé
Prurient	Lubrique
Tale of woe	Triste histoire
Tycoon	Magnat
To fall apart	Se désagréger

In American history and society, witch hunts refer to actually tracking down witches and to persecuting dissenters or non-conformists, most notably communists during the Cold War, which became known as McCarthyism.

Many writers use the figure of the witch to depict outcasts and to denunciate injustices. This is the case with Arthur Miller, most famous for his play The Crucible.

English	French
Dissenter	Dissident
The Cold War	Période allant de 1947 à 1989 durant laquelle deux pays et modèles économiques rivaux, les États-Unis capitalistes et l'URSS communiste, ont entretenu un conflit latent.
Scapegoat	Bouc émissaire
Resentment	Le ressentiment
To instil in/into	S'insinuer dans

The figure of the fallen woman is a stock character in 19^th century literature, the exact counter-example of what young women should do.

Frightful stories of fallen women's terrible destinies were meant to perform the cathartic function of scaring inexperienced female readers into remaining virtuous and chaste. Women who are known to have been with men before marriage are banished from society and branded as sinners.

English	French
To conceal	Dissimuler
To cast out	Exclure
Cathartic	Cathartique = qui purifie
Branded as	Marqué au fer rouge
The facts of life	Les choses de la vie

Romantics define the individual, and themselves, as the centre of the world. Their perceptions and emotions are the only things that matter on this earth.

The way Romantic writers and artists conceived of the individual is rooted in the tremendous political changes that took place in Europe in the late 18^th century. The revolutions, particularly in France, placed the individual at the centre of the nation, the political processes therein, and nature. According to this self-centred approach, nothing matters more than personal aspirations and intimate feelings, as is reflected by meditative and introspective poems, autobiographies and highly lyrical dramas.

English poet William Wordsworth captured the Romantic ethos in many of his poems, like the following, written in the Lake District, where he spent a lot of his time contemplating nature and letting inspiration seep through him.

In romantic literature, individuals are attracted to nature. A lot of romantic writers and artists see the wild as an ideal and dream to be out of society and live in nature. Walden by Hendy David Thoreau is one of the most important book about that subject. 

Henry David Thoreau, a 19^th century American writer and philosopher, drew upon the Romantic view of the individual within society to come up with his own political philosophy. He considered the individual to be superior to society and society, with its laws, rules and expectations, to be a strain on the individual. He is the one who forged the concept of "civil disobedience," a form of peaceful but no less powerful protest, later advocated by mahatma Gandhi. Civil disobedience proclaims that it is the individual's responsibility to disobey whenever they the law runs counter to their beliefs, values and moral principles. Thoreau famously disobeyed when he refused to pay his taxes because he claimed the money wasn't used to good ends, and incited his fellow citizens to follow suit. According to Thoreau, individuals should learn to be self-reliant instead of seeking the enslaving protection of any state, society or community. A loner at heart, Thoreau didn't want to be dependent on other people.

The autobiographical essay that made him truly famous is Walden, or Life in the Woods published in 1854. In this book, Thoreau records his 2-years experience in a forest on the outskirts of Boston, where he kept to the bare essentials of life in almost total self-isolation. From this experience, Thoreau derived a political and economic theory, according to which individuals are fooled by society and the states into acquiring and doing things they don't actually need. He even stated that individuals would be much better off on their own than living and sharing their space with others.

His essay would have a lasting impact on people rejecting society and consumerism, and was a reference for Christopher McCandless, the real-life hero of Into the Wild by Joe Krakauer, adapted into a film by Sean Penn in 2007 under the same title.

Thoreau's and Christopher's experiences of individual survival outside society reminds one of Rousseau's idyllic portrayal of the good savage, that is to say man before society, which was also a role model for the Romantics.

English	French
A loner	Un solitaire
The bare essentials	Le minimum vital
To severe one's ties with	Couper les ponts avec
To live off the grid	Vivre en marge
A tramp	Un chemineau/un sans-logis

Interacting and engaging with other people is paramount to create a sense of belonging among individuals of the same family, community or nation. However, people's experience of life in society often tends to be one of isolation and loneliness. Human beings experiment solitude: it is always there.

Edward Hopper depicts the solitude of people in his paintings. The American artist owes his fame to his wistful representations of New York City and its inhabitants. His paintings express an unsettling contradiction; city-dwellers are unable to socialise in spaces such as cinemas, bars or restaurants, which are suitable places for individuals to meet and interact. The motionless figures are unable to relate to the people around them and the urban world they inhabit. Hopper's  loners in the crowd are emblematic of the paradox experienced by most city-dwellers. Despite belonging to a place as populated as the Big Apple – thus referred to because everyone is welcome to a piece of it –, one can be totally non-existent and alone there.

Hopper's anonymous men and women look withdrawn, aloof and unfathomable. His paintings even seem to suggest that each individual is a world of its own, like an island. The viewer sees them, but is denied access to their thoughts and emotions, as he or she would be in real life. Observing Hopper's paintings is therefore both an aesthetic and social experience.

English	French
Wistful	Mélancolique
Unsettling	Inquiétant
To socialise	Nouer des liens
City-dwellers	Citadins
Motionless	Immobile
Withdrawn	Replié sur soi
Aloof	Distant
Unfathomable	Impénétrable

What Hopper didn't show, modernist writers would tell, thanks to a narrative technique novelists like James Joyce or Virginia Woolf experimented with in the early 20^th century. It enables the reader to have access to the thoughts and consciousness of the characters.

Defined by philosopher William James as "the stream of [...] subjective life," the stream of consciousness gives readers limitless access to the characters' innermost desires, opinions, emotions and feelings.

English	French
Innermost	Le plus intime
Path-breaking	Innovant
Train of thought	Le fil de la pensée
Privy to	Dans la confidence
To catch a glimpse of	Avoir un aperçu de
Lighthouse	Un phare
Solipsism	Solipsisme (= conception de l'individu comme une entité isolée, tout indépendant et impénétrable par ses semblables)