Bruckner and the Politics of Memory: Repentance and Resistance in Contemporary France

Abstract

Pascal Bruckner's stinging indictment of the "the tyranny of penitence" has made a timely contribution to the debate over history and memory that has long constituted a major given of French politics. The practical ramifications of his arguments can be found in the closely watched performances of public memory marking the first day in office of newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy, who conspicuously broke with Chirac's habit of national contrition. Sarkozy's memorial gestures announce a new approach to the politics of commemoration in France. However, this new approach to the nation's past has also been inspired by the positions articulated in the recent books of Max Gallo and even by a rejuvenated Gaullist discourse of unity and grandeur in the Resistance. Both Gallo and Sarkozy delivered speeches at the Cascade du Bois de Boulogne, where 35 young résistants were massacred by the Germans after having been betrayed by their collaborationist compatriots. Although "classic" in their eulogy of the résistants's idealism and courage, these speeches were innovative, first in stressing the political and social diversity of these Resistance martyrs, and second, in clearly stigmatizing the historical crimes committed by certain French citizens all while portraying the young résistants as having sacrificed their lives to an ideal of civilization and freedom that was France's true heritage. As Bruckner has recently argued, the memory of World War II still concerns the entire French nation: as such, it can transcend the traumatic memories particular to such and such groups by providing a common set of historical references and even shared memories. Voiced most incisively by Pascal Bruckner, the insistence on France's need for an unblinkered approach to the past that refuses to engage in self-flagellation provides a common set of historical references, fosters support for the basic precepts of the French Republic, and creates shared memories without turning a blind eye to crimes and injustices and has unquestionably received a positive response from the sixth president of the Fifth Republic.