Human Life, Symbol and Writing. Maurice Maeterlinck’s L’Oiseau blêu

This essay proposes a reading of L'Oiseau bleu, feerie en six actes et douze tableaux, a play of 1909 by Maurice Maeterlinck, translated into various languages, including English. Given the central role played in it by the symbol, this work is particularly interesting if considered in the framework of the general science of signs, or semiotics. Moreover, through this work Maeterlinck proposes a vision of the cosmic order and thematizes the positive and vital character of plurality and of differenc