An Armchair dispute
Franois Mauriac, Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, the Acadmie franaise and the occupation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12914938 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Flower (Kent State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 65-80 |
| Publication date | 2009-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of War and Culture Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1752-6272 • E-ISSN: 1752-6280 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/jwcs.2.1.65_1 |
| OpenAlex | W2045408482 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
This article takes as its focus a specific public dispute in the immediate post-World War II period in France in order to highlight wider ambiguities concerning the role and position of the intellectual during and after the period of the German Occupation. In 1946 the art critic, travel writer and occasional novelist Jean-Louis Vaudoyer applied for election to the Acadmie franaise. His long-standing friend, the prominent Roman Catholic writer Franois Mauriac, who was already a distinguished member of the Acadmie and had played a significant role in the intellectual resistance, publicly opposed him, accusing him of having been a collaborator during his time as director of the national Parisian theatre, the Comdie franaise (194144). The dispute was reported in the pages of the national conservative newspaper Le Figaro and in Les Lettres franaises, after the Liberation the literary supplement of the Communist newspaper L'Humanit, and submitted for examination to a jury d'honneur. Subject to German censorship and interference, Vaudoyer's position had been difficult but, it is argued here, Mauriac's charges appear excessive. Having virtually broken with the Communist-dominated Comit national des crivains, Mauriac now successfully turned to it for support. Although Vaudoyer was cleared by the jury he withdrew his application. Mauriac may have been motivated by Vaudoyer's failure to stage his second play, Les Mal-aims, but having inscribed copies of his novel La Pharisienne (1941) to Karl Epting and Gerhard Heller (who had helped facilitate its publication) he may have felt vulnerable to charges of collaboration himself, in spite of his record in the Resistance. Whatever the reasons and however minor, the dispute highlights the tensions and irrationalities that frequently emerged from the deeply troubled period of the Occupation and the Liberation
Art · Art history · Communism · German · Humanities · Jury · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Subject (documents · European Political History Analysis · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |