L'éloge du vagabondage au XIXe siècle : une pensée minoritaire

All along the nineteenth century in France, the vagabond becomes a main social and philosophical issue, for he is hunt down by scientists – vagrancy is conceived as a mental illness – and by jurists – different laws are created to criminalize the act. By establishing a link between this sudden obsession and the concern expressed by thinkers (Tocqueville, Comte, Bourget) that the society is dangerously blowing apart in separate individuals, this paper aims to analyze the manifestation of this conflict between society and vagabond in literature, among others Barrès’ Les Déracinés and Gide’s Nourritures terrestres.