Abstract
In July 1983 a series of over thirty articles appeared in the pages of Le Monde on what was labelled ‘the silence of left intellectuals’. It was remarked at the time that this title seemed odd, and indeed it represents something of a misnomer, because the otherwise thin and arid summer pages of Le Monde were filled with chatter from the French intellectual class. If this was a silence, then it was a deafening one.1 Examined with the luxury of hindsight, this so typically French debate provides an arresting case study, particularly when situated in the context of recent French political history. The articles in question have not escaped attention: Keith Reader refers to them in his book Intellectuals and the Left in France since 1968,2 while George Ross considers the debate as a symptom of decline in the status, if not the very existence, of left-wing intellectuals in France.3
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Notes
2. K. Reader, Intellectuals and the Left in France since 1968 (London: Macmillan, 1989), pp. 136–40.
3. See, for example, G. Ross, ‘The Decline of the Left Intellectual in Modern France’, in A. Gagnon, (ed.), Intellectuals in Liberal Democracies (Praeger, 1987), pp. 44–65.
4. R. Rieffel, La Tribu des clercs. Les intellectuels sous la Ve République (Paris: Calmann-Lévy/CNRS, 1993).
6. See P. Favier and M. Martin-Roland, La Décennie Mitterrand, I, Les ruptures (Paris: Seuil, 1990), pp. 56–60.
7. M. Foucault, ‘Est-il donc important de penser?’, interview in Libération, 30–31 May 1981, Dits et écrits 1954–1988, IV, 1980–1988 (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), text 296.
11. J.-F. Sirinelli, Intellectuels et passions françaises. Manifestes et pétitions au XXe siècle (Paris: Fayard, 1990), pp. 297–308.
12. F. Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992).
13. C. Clément, ‘Choisir sa propre distance’, Le Monde, 10 August 1983; see also Lyotard’s La Condition post-moderne (Paris: Minuit, 1982).
14. A. Glucksmann, La Cuisinière et le mangeur d’hommes (Paris: Seuil, 1975); B.-H. Lévy, La Barbarie à visage humain (Paris: Grasset, 1977).
15. See H. Hamon and P. Rotman, Génération I. Les années de rêve; Génération II (Paris: Seuil, 2 vol., 1987, 1988).
16. M. Gallo, Le Cortège des vainqueurs (Paris: Laffont, 1972, reprinted 1982).
17. R. Debray, Le Pouvoir intellectuel en France (Ramsay, 1979), pp. 94–112.
18. G. Ross, ‘Where have all the Sartres gone?’, in J.-F. Hollifield and G. Ross (eds), In Search of the New France (London: Routledge, 1991) p. 230.
19. F. Guattari, ‘Autant En Emporte La Crise’, Le Monde, 18 August 1983.
20. P. Boggio, ‘Victoire à contretemps’, Le Monde, 27 July 1983 and ‘Les chemins de traverse’, Le Monde, 28 July 1983.
23. See P.-A. Taguiefï, ‘La stratégie culturelle de la “Nouvelle Droite” en France (1968–1983)’, in R. Badinter, (ed.), Vous avez dit fascismes? (Arthaud-Montalba, 1984), pp. 13–152.
26. J-P Bonnel, ‘Ils ne se taisent pas: ils sont au pouvoir’, Le Monde, 2 August 1983.
27. Vercors, ‘Pas déçus, patients’, Le Monde, 6 August 1983.
28. C. Clément, ‘Choisir sa propre distance’, Le Monde, 10 August 1983.
30. J-P. Faye, ‘Musique de la pensée?’, Le Monde, 6 August 1983.
32. J. Chesneaux, De la modernité (Paris: La Découverte, 1983).
35. F. Furet and P. Rosanvallon, La République du centre (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1988).
37. F. Guattari, ‘Autant en emporte la crise’, Le Monde, 18 August 1983.
40. P. Boggio, ‘Le trouble’, Le Monde, 25 August 1983.
42. C. Nay, Les Sept Mitterrand, ou les métamorphoses d’un septennat, (Paris: Grasset, 1988), pp. 115ff.
This volume reproduces the article ‘Les intellectuels, la politique et la modernité’
43. M. Gallo, Les Idées décident de tout (Paris: Galilée, 1984), pp. 13–17. This volume reproduces the article ‘Les intellectuels, la politique et la modernité’.
44. J. Baudrillard, ‘La gauche divine: I. La fin des passions historiques’; II. ‘Social: grande illusion’, Le Monde, 21 and 22 September 1983. See also La Gauche divine: chronique des années 1977–1984 (Paris: Grasset, 1985).
45. J.-F. Lyotard, ‘Tombeau de l’intellectuel’, Le Monde, 8 October 1983. See also Le Tombeau de l’intellectuel et autres papiers (Paris: Galilée, 1984).
46. J.-F. Lyotard, Political Writings, translated by B. Readings with K.P. Geiman, (London: UCL Press, 1993), p. 3.
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Cornick, M. (1998). The Silence of the Left Intellectuals in Mitterrand’s France. In: Maclean, M. (eds) The Mitterrand Years. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26395-0_19
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