French Intellectuals And Politics From The Dreyfus Affair To The Occupation

by Drake, David

• ISBN13: 9780333778128
• ISBN10: 033377812X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-07-22
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This volume traces the political positions adopted by French writers and artists from the end of the nineteenth century to the Liberation. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it offers a clear and accessible analysis of the intellectuals' engagement with nationalism, pacifism, communism, anti-communism, surrealism, fascism and anti-fascism, which is located within the evolving national and international context of the period.

Author Biography

David Drake is Principal Lecturer in French at Middlesex University. He is President of the UK Society for Sartrean Studies and is a member of the editorial board of Modern and Contemporary France.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(7)
1. The Dreyfus Affair and the Birth of the 'Intellectuals'	8	(27)
Fin-de-siècle France	9	(3)
The Case of Alfred Dreyfus (1894-98)	12	(9)
The birth of the 'intellectuals'	21	(2)
Dreyfusard and anti-Dreyfusard intellectuals	23	(9)
The ligues and Action française	32	(1)
The Dreyfus Affair: from Zola's trial to the Bloc républicain	33	(2)
2. From 'Republican Defence' to Defence of the Patrie	35	(32)
Waldeck-Rousseau and the defence of the Republic: Émile Combes and the Republic on the offensive	35	(2)
Georges Sorel, socialism, the Dreyfus Affair and the 'Dreyfusard revolution'	37	(2)
Charles Péguy, the socialists, the Dreyfus Affair and the 'Dreyfusard revolution'	39	(4)
Socialism, nationalism, internationalism and a new threat of war?	43	(1)
The rise of Action française	43	(3)
Péguy's nationalism	46	(2)
Péguy, Daniel Halévy and Sorel's views of the Dreyfus Affair	48	(3)
Intellectuals and the defence of the homeland (défence de la patrie)	51	(1)
The union sacrée (sacred union)	52	(9)
Romain Rolland: 'Au-dessus de la mêlée' (Above the Mêelée)	61	(6)
3. The 1920's: French Intellectuals and Pacifism, Communism, Surrealism and Nationalism	67	(36)
France: victorious but at what price?	67	(2)
Pacifism and revolution	69	(15)
From Dada to surrealism	84	(3)
Surrealism	87	(9)
Nationalism	96	(5)
Julien Benda and La Trahison des clercs (The Betrayal of the Clerisy)	101	(2)
4. Fascism, Anti-fascism, Communism, Anti-communism and Pacifism	103	(46)
The Stavisky scandal and the night of 6 February 1934	105	(2)
French intellectuals and the USSR 1930-34	107	(6)
French communism and the intellectuals 1930-34	113	(5)
The years 1934-36: French fascism	118	(6)
The years 1934-36: French anti-fascism	124	(18)
From Popular Front to the Munich Agreement	142	(2)
September 1938: the Munich Agreement	144	(4)
August 1939: the Nazi-Soviet pact	148	(1)
5. The Occupation 1940-44: Collaborationism, Collaboration and Resistance	149	(38)
September 1939 June 1940: from the Phoney War to defeat	149	(3)
Intellectuals and the defeat of 1940	152	(2)
Intellectuals and collaboration 1940-42	154	(10)
Intellectuals and the Resistance 1940-42	164	(8)
Intellectuals and collaboration 1942-44	172	(4)
Intellectuals and the Resistance 1942-44	176	(11)
Notes	187	(15)
Select Bibliography	202	(5)
Index	207