The 1933 killing by the Papin sisters of their mistress and her daughter was an act of unexampled violence by women against women, whose repercussions have been felt in French culture ever since. It received wide journalistic coverage at the time, and subsequently prominent literary figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Genet have dealt with the case, which has also formed the basis of a stage play (by Wendy Kesselmann) and films by Nico Papatakis, Nancy Meckler and Claude Chabrol. The case casts fascinating light on French provincial life between the wars, the role of women (especially unmarried ones) in French society, and French views of the criminal outsider. Its impact on psychoanalytic discourse, through the work first of Jacques Lacan, then of Francis Dupré and Marie-Magdeleine Lessana, has also been considerable, notably in its contribution to the development of the key notion of the mirror-phase. The almost obsessive recurrence of the case makes of it a fascinating prism through which to examine multiple aspects of recent French culture.

En cette soirée tragique du 2 février 1933, René Lancelin, notable du Mans, ne peut pénétrer à l’intérieur de son domicile. La maison est plongée dans le noir, la porte est verrouillée, et ni sa femme, ni sa fille, ni les deux bonnes, Christine et Léa Papin, ne répondent. Inquiet, il alerte la police, qui s’empresse d’ouvrir et découvre alors l’épouvantable drame : les corps ensanglantés de sa femme et sa fille gisent à l’étage. Les victimes sont atrocement défigurées, les corps lardés de plusieurs dizaines de coups de couteau. À l’étage, la chambre des bonnes est fermée à clef. Au fond de la pièce, les policiers découvrent, serrées l’une contre l’autre dans leur lit, l’œil hagard, les deux jeunes meurtrières. Démarre alors la ténébreuse affaire des sœurs Papin, qui va mobiliser pendant plusieurs mois l’opinion publique, la presse, les avocats, les juges, les experts psychiatriques pour essayer de comprendre la raison d’un tel acte et le pourquoi d’une telle violence. Le geste des deux sœurs était-il prémédité ? Étaient-elles ou non sous l’emprise de la folie ? Sophie Darblade-Mamouni nous raconte cette passionnante affaire qui a inspiré nombre de psychanalystes, d’écrivains et de cinéastes.

The 1933 killing by the Papin sisters of their mistress and her daughter was an act of unexampled violence by women against women, whose repercussions have been felt in French culture ever since. It received wide journalistic coverage at the time, and subsequently prominent literary figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Genet have dealt with the case, which has also formed the basis of a stage play (by Wendy Kesselmann) and films by Nico Papatakis, Nancy Meckler and Claude Chabrol. The case casts fascinating light on French provincial life between the wars, the role of women (especially unmarried ones) in French society, and French views of the criminal outsider. Its impact on psychoanalytic discourse, through the work first of Jacques Lacan, then of Francis Dupre and Marie-Magdeleine Lessana, has also been considerable, notably in its contribution to the development of the key notion of the mirror-phase. The almost obsessive recurrence of the case makes of it a fascinating prism through which to examine multiple aspects of recent French culture.