French Writers' War, 1940-1953

GisÈle Sapiro is a sociologist in Paris, where she is Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction 1Part I. The Literary Logics of Political Engagement 111. Choices under Constraints 132. The Responsibility of the Writer 813. Literary Salvation and the Literature of Salvation: FranÇois Mauriac and Henry Bordeaux 158Part II. Literary Institutions and National Crisis 1874. The Sense of Duty: The French Academy 1915. The Sense of Scandal: The Goncourt Academy 2436. The Sense of Distinction: The "NRF Spirit" 2937. The Sense of Subversion: The ComitÉ national des Écrivains (CNE) 362Part III. Literary Justice 4378. The Literary Court 4399. Literary Institutions and National Reconstruction 491Conclusion 537Appendix 1: Presentation of the Survey 551Appendix 2: The Social Recruitment of the Literary Field and of Its Institutions 561Notes 573Bibliography 677Name Index 721

“GisÈle Sapiro’s La Guerre des Écrivains originally appeared in 1999. This welcome, if belated, translation after a gap of fifteen years reflects its considerable impact on literary and cultural studies of the Occupation of France since then….What undoubtedly accounts for much of the success of The French Writers’ War 1940–1953 is its impressive mastery of a huge amount of data on French literary production of the interwar years and the aftermath of the Occupation: publishers, literary journals and reviews, and a near exhaustive coverage of the writers themselves.” - Nicholas Hewitt (TLS) “The French Writers’ War is an ambitious project. Sapiro has amply succeeded in providing a comprehensive study of four literary institutions, the writers who composed them, and the decisions these figures made before, during, and after the occupation…. The French Writers’ War is an illuminating book and Sapiro deserves to be warmly thanked for her contribution.” - Mattie Fitch (H-War, H-Net Reviews)