Sandrine Sanos. The Aesthetics of Hate

In this book, Sandrine Sanos seeks to overcome the divide between literary scholars and historians who have studied the French far right during the 1930s. While the former have focused on the literary works of far-right-wing intellectuals, the latter have highlighted their political activities and journalistic writings. Sanos argues that these two aspects of their careers cannot be separated. Moreover, she suggests that post–World War II efforts to dissociate the literary from the political frequently served to absolve certain individuals of guilt for their unsavory political behavior during the 1930s, especially under Vichy. She also argues that violent antisemitism was not peripheral to the nationalist ideology of the far right. Most controversially, she maintains that the views of right-wing intellectuals toward sexuality and gender, especially their drive to create a new virile masculinity, were linked to their antisemitism and racist attitudes toward colonial subjects. According to Sanos, the national crisis perceived by right-wing writers and publicists mirrored an inner crisis as well, since traditional views of masculinity were under assault during these years. She argues that what these individuals feared most was the dissolution of the French nation due to the country's porous borders, which had encouraged a massive “invasion” of immigrants, especially Jews. She similarly suggests that their greatest fear on the individual level was the dissolution of the male self brought about by the collapse of traditional gender boundaries.

Antisemitism · Extreme right · Ideology · Judaism · Masculinity · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · World War II · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Gender Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law