A continuing preoccupation with the Occupation
In addition to a number of commemorative and traditional events and a steady stream of new publications, references and allusions to the period of the Occupation appear to have increased over the last few years. One basic reason, sometimes supported by evidence, is that after seventy years there is a danger that those years and their traumatic events will gradually be forgotten or remembered incorrectly. It may also be, however, that they are being recalled to help assuage a collective sense of guilt, or in some cases used more consciously for political and socio-political purposes with the result that they feed deep-rooted and sometimes unrealised prejudices with direct consequences for contemporary society. After rapidly rehearsing the ways in which the Occupation has hitherto been assessed, the article focuses precisely on some of this apparent modern development.1
Moving Beyond the Rhetoric of Provocation: The French and World War II in the Novels of the Hussards (1949–1954)
Abstract In the immediate aftermath of World War II, only those who had opposed the Germans or were perceived to have done so could freely express themselves. Soon, however, three young writers clearly leaning to the right of the political spectrum – Antoine Blondin, Roger Nimier, and Jacques Laurent – dared to challenge their narratives in a series of provocative novels published between 1949 and 1954. Quickly referred to as the Hussards after the publication in of a famous essay by Bernard Frank, these writers momentarily occupied the literary space left vacant by their older peers. Without denying the provocative, political and subversive dimensions of the Hussards' war novels, this article will argue that their success was mainly due to the fact that they were largely in line – and not in contradiction – with the ‘horizon of expectations’ of their time ().
La France libre : de l'appel du 18 juin à la Libération
Faire l'histoire de la France Libre, c'est, patiemment tisser autour de De Gaulle la toile d'une aventure collective faite d'une multitude d'exploits individuels, mais aussi d'un reseau complexe de microsocietes.
Mais faire l'histoire de la France Libre n'est pas seulement en restituer l'esprit. C'est en distinguer les composantes et les epoques, en reconstituer les multiples facettes et ne negliger aucune des lourdes questions qu'elle souleve : son role et son poids dans un conflit planetaire, sa legitimite a « etre la France » tant vis-a-vis de Petain que des allies, sa strategie vis-a-vis de l'interieur, sa capacite d'anticiper l'avenir national.
Faire l'histoire de la France Libre, c'est aussi retracer pas a pas l'autocreation continue et a peu pres ignoree d'une organisation d'abord militaire et morale, puis administrative et financiere, d'un organisme vite politique qui reconstitue bribe a bribe la souverainete nationale et la legalite republicaine, preparant avec ou contre la Resistance interieure l'apres-Liberation.
Faire l'histoire de la France Libre, c'est encore et surtout revenir sur le role de ce grand homme dans cette histoire, non pour detruire la legende, mais pour lui imposer les rectifications du savoir et faire apparaitre un de Gaulle assez different, plus realiste, plus calculateur, plus visionnaire ; c'est mieux comprendre ce dont les Francais liberes lui furent redevables.