Christopher E Forth, The Dreyfus affair and the crisis of French manhood, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, pp. xii, 300, £33.50 (hardback 0-8018-7433-5).

Abstract

When Captain Alfred Dreyfus was publicly dishonoured in January 1895 his demeanour was the subject of intense journalistic scrutiny. Dreyfus's stoic and unemotional bearing during his degradation ceremony was roundly condemned. His failure to weep or show other signs of repentance or despair was interpreted in ways that reinforced perceptions of his guilt. Yet, Christopher Forth argues, such interpretations were at odds with the cultural norms of the period, since the ability to control one's emotions was central to definitions of adult masculinity in fin-de-siecle France. Masculinity was perceived as a construct, one open to attack and relying on willpower for its maintenance. Why, then, did Dreyfus's self-control disturb his audience as it did? This apparent paradox is, in Forth's study, the starting point for a nuanced and sophisticated analysis of French manhood. The territories covered in the book are familiar: the Dreyfus Affair and more generally the Third Republic crisis of confidence. Forth illuminates both, bringing a valuable cultural perspective to the analysis of the Dreyfus Affair whilst using it to shed new light on broader cultural concerns. Drawing on a wide range of mostly published sources, including periodicals, cartoons, and advertisements, he shows that the Drefyusards and anti-Drefyusards shared a common conceptual language, in which pathology and effeminacy threatened French masculinity and thereby the French state. Both groups broadly agreed on the definition of appropriate masculinity, citizenship and health; for both, Dreyfus's Jewishness was perceived to complicate these categories. Forth demonstrates that the category of “the Jew” was far from stable, and that it was often used metaphorically to represent the intellectual and effeminate characteristics of modernity. Dreyfus's lack of tears was thus interpreted within this matrix to suggest that he felt no sense of honour or passion. To analyse the Affair purely in terms of the very real anti-Semitism of the period is reductive, however, ignoring the complexity of the symbolic uses to which the figure of Dreyfus was put. Widening his scope of analysis, Forth examines the gender politics of the Affair, and links anxieties over the role of women to those concerning the role of the “intellectual” in French culture. He is particularly strong in his analysis of the ways in which Dreyfusards attempted to re-establish their claim on virile masculinity by distancing themselves, and Dreyfus, from the symbols most commonly associated with effeminacy. However, in co-opting the language of virility, they implicitly accepted its assumptions, especially those concerning the passivity of women and the importance of cultivating the body rather than the mind. Forth demonstrates how these issues were crystallised in Emile Zola's successful battle with his weight, a feat of willpower celebrated by Dreyfusards as a proof of his masculinity and his commitment to the political cause. In the later chapters of the book, the figure of Dreyfus becomes obscured, a reflection of how far-reaching an influence the Affair had in fin-de-siecle France. Forth considers the rhetoric surrounding the new culture of physical force, with its emphasis on the traditional masculine virtues of physical action and courage, and links from these to the new cult of physical regeneration emerging in France. Here, the degree of influence between the Affair and broader cultural trends, especially that of the crisis of masculinity, could be further elucidated. It would also be interesting to learn more about the cultural influence of the literature surrounding diet, digestion, and strength. Forth concludes by suggesting that the willingness of Dreyfusards to embrace the cult of physical force ultimately saw their arguments being cited to support the “man of action” over the intellectual. When analysed in terms of gender, as well as anti-Semitism, the Affair emerges as an arena in which competing models of masculinity were evaluated in ways that would re-emerge in the fascist politics of the twentieth century.