Le festival f/stop de Leipzig
This article offers a unique perspective on Saint-Exupéry, drawing on his correspondence and testimonials. While the humanist was indifferent to the debates that animated intellectuals in the 1930s, he adopted a contradictory stance after the defeat of 1940. Opposed to collaboration, he was neverthe...
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Language: | Français |
| Published: |
2013
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| Online Access: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | This article offers a unique perspective on Saint-Exupéry, drawing on his correspondence and testimonials. While the humanist was indifferent to the debates that animated intellectuals in the 1930s, he adopted a contradictory stance after the defeat of 1940. Opposed to collaboration, he was nevertheless sensitive to the values defended by the Vichy regime. Defiant towards General de Gaulle, even though he wanted to continue the fight against the enemy, he did not join the Free French Forces (FFL). His attitude toward the “Jewish question” was more ambiguous. One could interpret Pilote de guerre (1943) as an act of resistance against anti-Semitism when he defends the patriotism and courage of his comrade Jean Israël. But what then of the latter’s “very Jewish nose”? Furthermore, if he had such deep ties to Léon Werth, “the most French of Frenchmen because he was Jewish,” why did he liken his friend to the fate of “forty million hostages” in Lettre à un otage (Letter to a Hostage, 1943), to the point of downplaying anti-Jewish persecution in France? Despite his calls for unity and brotherhood, had the writer really rid himself of his prejudices? |
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