CASTRO, Clara. Nature in Sade. Nat. hum. []. 2019, 21, spe, pp.39-61. ISSN 1517-2430.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the idea of nature in Sade's clandestine work, more specifically, in the stories of "Justine" (1787/1999) and "Juliette" (1801). The discussion will be based on the speech of two storytellers (from "The Misfortunes of Virtue" and "The New Justine") and five characters (Dubois, Noirceuil, Rodin, Braschi and Juliette). It is intended to study four different notions of nature (the compensator, the creator, the stupid and the nonexistent) in order to show that these notions actually form a single reasoning, developed in a regressive gradation. Everything begins in an omnipotent and amoral nature, which develops in an immoral, less powerful one that requires the libertine to disorganize matter, but it becomes impotent and inconsequential until it reveals itself to be as mysterious and incomprehensible as divinity.

: Sade; Nature; Matter; Energy; Organization; Disorganization.

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