Philippe Soupault ou le roman à l’encre de pieuvre

Between 1923 and 1934, Philippe Soupault published thirteen novels which all have in common the recurring theme of escape. Rather than engaging with the surrealist theme of imaginary escape, the author explores real-life leaps into the unknown. A range of characters leave their families, wives, habits and jobs to experience greater freedom and escape the constraints of bourgeois society. Adopting a contextual and sociocritical approach, this paper will focus on Soupault’s first novel, Le Bon Apôtre, in order to examine this desire for escape as a symptom.