Abstract
In March 1991, at the very moment when French television was in the process of showing a four-part documentary devoted to the intellectual in France, The Times newspaper in England published a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek article entitled ‘Dead and Bereted’.1 The reader was invited to consider the views of the ‘identikit intellectual’, Jean-Pierre Levy. Levy, we were told, ‘sprang from that grand tradition of French thinkers who could think of three new reasons to commit suicide or sign a petition before breakfast. They made their names by sneering more than the average Parisian. Many of them also made their names by picking three, in any permutation, from a list that included Charles, Henri, Paul, Levi, Pierre, Sartre, Bernard, Jean, Claude and Buffy’. No one ever chose Buffy! Even more amusingly the mythical Levy tells us: ‘we were never rich — I remember once, soon after everyone thought that Levi-Strauss had licensed his name to a jeans company, that André Gide was so jealous he approached a famous laxative with the idea of marketing a new potion with the slogan, ‘Vous serez vide avec une dose de Gide’’. Gide, we are led to believe, was spurned and in a huff went off to write Strait is the Gate. Such men, however, were happy and there were still plenty of questions to be asked. ‘Every day’, Levy comments, ‘I think of more’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
P. Johnson, Intellectuals (London, 1988).
B-H. Lévy, Eloge des intellectuels (Paris, 1987).
B-H. Lévy, Les Aventures de la liberté (Paris, 1991).
A. Finkelkraut, La Défaite de la pensée (Paris, 1987). This work has been translated as The Undoing of Thought (London, 1988).
See in particular M. Foucault, ‘Truth and Power’, in C. Gordon (ed.), Michel Foucault: Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–77 (Brighton, 1980) pp. 109–33. First published in Italian, the French version of this interview appeared in L’Arc, 70, 1977.
J. Julliard, Contre la politique professionnelle (Paris, 1977).
P. Nora, ‘Que peuvent les intellectuels?’, Le Débat, 1, 1980, pp. 1–19. See below, pp. 187–98.
M-A. Burnier, Le Testament de Sartre (Paris, 1982) and
J. Verdès-Leroux, La Lune et le Caudillo: le rêve des intellectuels et le régime cubain (Paris, 1989).
R. Aron, ‘Les intellectuels et la politique’, Commentaire, 22, 1983, pp. 259–63. For a wider discussion of Aron’s position see
R. Aron, Le Spectateur engagé: entretiens avec Jean-Marie Missika et Dominique Walton (Paris, 1981). On broader developments in this period see
K. M. Reader, Intellectuals and the Left in France since 1968 (London, 1987).
J. F. Sirinelli, ‘Les intellectuels’, in R. Rémond (ed.), Pour une histoire politique (Paris, 1988) p. 208.
See F. Bourricaud, Le Bricolage idéologique: essai sur les intellectuels et les passions démocratiques (Paris, 1980) and
D.Lindenberg, ‘L’intellectuel est-il une spécialité française?’, in P. Ory (ed.), Dernières questions aux intellectuels (Paris, 1990) pp. 155–205.
See J. M. Goulemot, ‘L’intellectuel est-il responsable (et de quoi)?’, in P. Ory (ed), Dernières questions, pp. 51–105. For a broader discussion of this issue in English see Ian Maclean et al. (eds), The Political Responsibility of Intellectuals (Cambridge, 1990).
The first serious study of these issues was published by D. Caute, Communism and the French Intellectuals (London, 1964) but in French see especially
J.Verdès-Leroux, Au Service du Parti: le parti communiste, les intellectuels et la culture (1944–1936) (Paris, 1983) and Le Réveil des Somnambules: Le PC, les intellectuels, et la culture, 1956–1985 (Paris, 1987);
P. Grémion, Paris/Prague: la gauche face au renouveau et à la régression tchécoslovaques (Paris, 1985); and
B. Legendre, Le Stalinisme français: qui a dit quoi? (1944–1956) (Paris, 1980). For an excellent analysis of the wider phenomenon of French perceptions of the Soviet Union see
R. Desjardins, The Soviet Union through French eyes, 1945–85 (London, 1988). But see especially
S. Hazareesingh, Intellectuals and the French Communist Party: Disillusion and Decline (Oxford, 1991).
See, for example, P. Assouline, L’Epuration des intellectuels (Brussels, 1985).
For a discussion of these developments see R. Chartier, ‘Intellectual History or Sociocultural History? The French Trajectories’, in D. La Capra and S. L. Kaplan (eds), Modern European Intellectual History (Cornell, 1982).
J. Lacarne and B. Vercier, ‘Premières personnes’, Le Débat, 54, 1989, pp. 54–67. See also
D. Madelenat, ‘La biographie aujourd’hui’, Mesure, 1, 1989, pp. 47–58 and
F. Torres, ‘Du champ des Annales à la biographie’, Sources. Histoire au présent, 3–4, 1985, pp. 141–51. For a word of extreme caution see
P. Bourdieu, ‘L’Illusion biographique’, Actes de la Recherche en sciences sociales, 62/63, 1986, pp. 69–72.
J. Le Goff, ‘Comment écrire une biographie historique aujourd’hui?’, Le Débat, 54, 1989, 48–53. For Pivot’s response to the criticisms directed against him see ‘L’Esprit d’Apostrophes’, Le Débat, 60, 1990, pp. 157–87.
D. Eribon, Michel Foucault (Paris, 1989).
A. Cohen-Solal, Paul Nizan, communiste impossible (Paris, 1989) and
P. Ory, Nizan. Destin d’un révolté 1905–1940 (Paris, 1980).
J-F. Sirinelli, ‘Biographie et histoire des intellectuels: le cas des «éveilleurs» et l’example d’André Bellessort’, Sources. Histoire au présent, 3–4, 1985, pp. 61–73.
See for example N. Sarraute, Enfance (Paris, 1983).
The classic intellectual’s autobiography is, of course, Simone de Beauvoir’s monumental, and not always truthful, account of her own life, but see R. Aron, Mémoires: 50 ans de réflexion politique (Paris, 1983) and
E. Le Roy Ladurie, Paris-Montpellier (Paris, 1982).
See J-F. Sirinelli, ‘Le hasard ou la nécessité? Une histoire en chantier: l’histoire des intellectuels’, Vingtième siècle, 9, 1986, pp. 97–108. See also T. Judt, ‘The judgements of Paris’, Times Literary Supplement, 28 June, 1991, pp. 3–5.
R. Debray, Le Pouvoir intellectuel en France (Paris, 1979) and Le Scribe (Paris, 1980). Le Pouvoir intellectuel en France has been translated as Teachers, Writers, Celebrities: The Intellectuals of Modern France (London, 1981).
P. Bourdieu, Choses dites (Paris, 1983); translated as In Other Words (Oxford, 1990) p. 145. For the most recent statement by Bourdieu on the role of intellectuals see ‘Un entretien avec Pierre Bourdieu’, Le Monde, 14 January 1992.
P. Bourdieu, ‘Champ du pouvoir, champ intellectuel, et habitus de classe’, Scolies, I, 1971, pp. 7–86.
For a discussion of these and related issues see R.Harker et al. (eds), An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu: The Practice of Theory (London, 1990).
P. Bourdieu, Homo Academicus (Paris, 1984); translated as Homo Academicus (Oxford, 1988).
P. Bourdieu, La Noblesse d’Etat (Paris, 1990).
C. Charle, Les Elites de la République 1880–1900 (Paris, 1987) and Naissance des «intellectuels» 1880–1900 (Paris, 1990). For an example of the way Bourdieu has been used in the English-speaking world see
F. Ringer, Fields of Knowledge: French Academic Culture in Comparative Perspective 1890–1920 (Cambridge/Paris, 1992).
J-F. Sirinelli, Génération intellectuelle: Khâgneux et Normaliens dans l’entre-deux-guerres (Paris, 1988).
J-F. Sirinelli, Intellectuels et passions françaises: Manifestes et pétitions au XXe siècle (Paris, 1990).
See C. Prochasson, Les années électriques 1880–1910 (Paris, 1991), pp. 15–82;
A. Simonin, ‘Les Editions de Minuit et les Editions du Seuil: deux stratégies éditoriales face à la guerre d’Algérie’, in J. P. Rioux and J-F. Sirinelli (eds), La Guerre d’Algérie et les intellectuels français (Brussels, 1991) pp. 219–45;
L. Pinto, L’Intelligence en action: le Nouvel Observateur (Paris, 1984) and
A. Boschetti, Sartre et ‘Les Temps modernes’: une enterprise intellectuelle (Paris, 1985).
G. Sapiro, Institutions littéraires et crise nationale: Académie Française, Académie Goncourt et Comité national des écrivains dans les années quarante, DEA thesis, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en sciences sociales (Paris, 1991).
Quoted in D. McLellan, Simone Weil: Utopian Pessimist (London, 1989) p. 178.
J. Benda, La Jeunesse d’un clerc (Paris, 1936) p. 89.
See below p. 103 and M. Rebérioux, ‘Zola, Jaurès et France: trois intellectuels devant l’Affaire’, Cahiers naturalistes, 54, 1980, pp. 266–81 and ‘Histoire, historiens et dreyfusisme’, Revue historique, 518, 1976, pp. 407–32.
M. Winock, ‘Les Affaires Dreyfus’, Vingtième Siècle, 5, 1985, pp. 19–37.
F. Brunetière, Après le procès: Réponse à quelques «intellectuels» (Paris, 1898) p. 93.
See E. Durkheim, ‘L’individualisme et les intellectuels’, La Revue bleue, 10, 1898, pp. 7–13 and F. Brunetière, Après le procès. Durkheim’s article has been translated as ‘Individualism and the Intellectuals’, Political Studies, 17, 1969, pp. 14–30.
G. Colin and J-J.Becker, ‘Les écrivains, la guerre de 1914 et l’opinion publique’, Relations internationales, 24, 1980, pp. 425–42.
See R. Wohl, The Generation of 1914 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979) pp. 5–41.
P. Soulez, Bergson politique (Paris, 1989).
See especially J-F. Sirinelli, Génération intellectuelle, and J-L. Loubet del Bayle, Les non-conformistes des années 30 (Paris, 1969).
See N. Racine-Furlaud, ‘Le Comité de vigilance des intellectuelles antifascistes (1934–1939): Antifascisme et pacifisme’, Le Mouvement social, 101, 1977, pp. 87–113.
R. Brasillach, Notre avant-guerre (Paris, 1972) p. 236.
S. de Beauvoir, Lettres à Sartre 1940–1963 (Paris, 1990).
A. Gide, Retour de l’URSS (Paris, 1936).
See J-L. Panné, ‘L’affaire Victor Serge et la gauche française’, Communisme, 5, 1984, pp. 89–104.
For an interesting discussion of one aspect of this strategy see M. Lazar, ‘Les «Batailles du livre» du Parti Communiste Français (1950–1952)’, Vingtième siècle, 10, 1986, pp. 37–50.
S. de Beauvoir, Force of circumstance (Harmondsworth, 1968) p. 49. For an extended discussion of this whole period see
A. Chebel d’Appollonia, Histoire politique des intellectuels en France 1944–1954 (Brussels, 1991) 2 vols.
See M. Poster, Existentialist Marxism in Post-war France (Princeton, 1975).
L. Casanova, Le Parti communiste, les intellectuels et la nation (Paris, 1949).
See especially J-P. Rioux and J-F.Sirinelli (eds), La Guerre d’Algérie et les intellectuels français (Paris, 1991).
See P. Thibaud, ‘Génération algérienne’, Esprit, 161, 1990, pp. 46–60.
A. M. Duranton-Crabol, ‘Le GRECE dans le chantier de l’histoire des intellectuels (1968–1984)’ Les Cahiers de l’Institut d’histoire du temps présent, 6, 1987, pp. 95–104.
See H. Hamon and P. Rotman, Génération, 2 vols (Paris, 1990).
For a broader discussion of the 1968 events see D.Bertaux et al., ‘Mai 68 et la formation de générations politiques en France’, Le Mouvement social, 143, 1988, pp. 75–88.
See C. Prochasson, Place et rôle des intellectuels dans le mouvement socialiste français 1900–1920 (doctoral thesis, Université Paris 1, 1989). A revised version of this thesis is shortly to be published by Le Seuil.
D. Bair, Simone de Beauvoir (London, 1990) p. 427.
J. Kristeva, Les Samouraïs (Paris, 1990).
J. Verdès-Leroux, Au service du Parti: Le Parti communiste, les intellectuels et la culture (Paris, 1983).
G. Pompidou, ‘Préface’ to A. Peyrefitte, La Rue d’Ulm: chroniques de la vie normalienne (Paris, 1963) p. 9.
See R. Smith, ‘L’Atmosphère politique à l’Ecole normale supérieure’, Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, XX, 1973, pp. 248–68.
H. Hamon and P. Rotman, Les Intellocrates: expédition en haute intelligentsia (Paris, 1981).
M. Camber-Porter, Through Parisian Eyes (Oxford, 1986) pp. 54–5.
See P. Nora, ‘Dix Ans de Débat’, Le Débat, 60, 1990, pp. 5–11 and ‘Un entretien avec Pierre Nora’, Le Monde, 1 June 1990.
For an extended discussion of these themes see M. Walzer, The Company of Critics: Social Criticism and Political Commitment in the Twentieth Century (London, 1989).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1993 J. R. Jennings
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jennings, J. (1993). Introduction: Mandarins and Samurais: The Intellectual in Modern France. In: Jennings, J. (eds) Intellectuals in Twentieth-Century France. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22501-9_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22501-9_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-22503-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-22501-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)