Après la bombe atomique : l’image du physicien dans la littérature européenne. Domaines italien, français, anglais

In August 1945 two atomic bombs, built by the scientists and technicians of the Manhattan Project, destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The following thesis explores the changes in the literary image of the scientist after the bombardment of the two Japanese cities. In order to investigate the figure of the scientist in the contemporary imagery, this work focuses on the analysis of the fictional reworking of real physicists. The objects of this research are the fictional namesakes of a pantheon of scholars such as Einstein, Majorana, Oppenheimer, Meitner, Heisenberg, Bohr, and Fermi. About thirty Italian, French and English narrative and theatrical works are examined from narrating, dramaturgical, ethical and symbolic perspectives. Referring to Eric Hobsbawm’s remarks, this thesis advances the conflicting perception which concerns our idea of the science. The turning point in the scientist’s image is not definite and its climax is the collective vision of the science. The figurative representations of this mechanism are the chain reaction and the atomic explosion, whose effects are collective, even cosmic.