François Mauriac: The Making of an Intellectual by Edward Welch

Abstract

MLR, I03. I, 2oo8 243 of the aesthetic complexities of a 'generation-charniere a l'aube du monde moderne et de sesmutations' (p. 259). GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PATRICK LAUDE Fran_oisMauriac: TheMaking of an Intellectual. By EDWARDWELCH. (Faux Titre, 290) Amsterdam: Rodopi. 2oo6. 202 pp. ?40. ISBN 978-90-420-2I I2-9. In this important study Edward Welch makes use of a Bourdieusian framework to build a convincing case forviewing Mauriac as amajor intellectual figure inpost-war France. The firstof his fivechapters centres onMauriac's ambivalent relationship with La Nouvelle Revue Franfaise. Although Mauriac was delighted when theNRF started according him status in the 1920S, the reassertion of his faith in the closing years of this decade encouraged him to establish Vigile as a Catholic alternative to theNRF in 1930. The reason for the review's failure, Welch argues, is that Mauriac misread thecultural fieldby allowing theabbe Altermann to act as a censor, thus vio lating theprinciple of literaryautonomy established by the NRF. Mauriac confirmed his allegiance to the heteronymous pole when he startedwriting for the right-wing Echo deParis in I932 and was elected to theAcademie Francaise in I933. However, it was precisely Mauriac's exposure to the extreme conservatism of theAcademie that helped prepare the ground forhis political evolution during the Spanish Civil War. This process continued during theOccupation when he joined the intellectual resis tance, though not before his status received a significantblow fromSartre' s (in)famous I939 article in theNRF. (I was surprised to findno referencehere tomy article 'The Originality of Sartre's "M. Francois Mauriac et la liberte"', French Studies Bulletin, 55 (Summer I995), 3-5.) Welch reads Sartre's article as a pivotal moment in the re shaping of the literaryfield,paving theway forthepost-war eclipse of the NRF byLes TempsModernes. Mauriac's receipt of theNobel Prize in I952 is seen as producing an ethical shock that caused him toquestion the dominant socio-cultural order and his own place within thatorder inways thatcorresponded toSartre's redefinition of the crucial issues within the cultural field.Welch makes some particularly useful com ments in relation to Mauriac's period atL'Express ( 954-6 I), including a detailed ana lysisof thepiece fromJanuary 195 5 inwhich Mauriac broaches the subject ofFrench torture in Algeria. The close reading ofboth textand image provides a counterbalance to thebroader perspective thatcharacterizes thebulk of the study; it is regrettable that problems relating to copyright and technical issues preventWelch from reproducing thepage layouts and photographs he discusses sowell. ForWelch, Mauriac's critique of colonialism isproblematized by his faith inFrance's mission civilisatrice. He draws on Levinasian ethics to criticize Mauriac in this context, but his use of the term 'assimilation' (p. I28) to describe Mauriac's response to the Islamic Other isunfor tunate given its specific political meaning in thecontext ofAlgeria. Welch shows how theunlikely relationship between Mauriac and L'Express turned the seventy-year-old writer into a 'media star' (p. 135). De Gaulle's return in 1958 is seen asmarking the beginning ofMauriac's decline as a significant intellectual voice: his proximity to the General means thathe moves from a position of paradox to one of orthodoxy. Itwas theweekly's critical attitude towards De Gaulle that eventually provoked Mauriac's departure fromL'Express, but thepublication's promotion of consumerism and mo dernization represented a cultural agenda with which Mauriac became increasingly uncomfortable in the I960s. However, asWelch intriguingly suggests, it isprecisely Mauriac's non-synchronicity during the I960s that constitutes the value of his on going testimony. Welch's book provides clear evidence ofwhyMauriac's journalism 244 Reviews merits continued attention. His studywill be of interestnot only to Mauriac special ists,but toall thosewho work on the relationship between intellectuals and themedia. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER PAUL COOKE L'Histoire-Bataille: l'eriture de l'histoire dans l'ceuvre de Georges Bataille. Ed. by LAURENT FERRI and CHRISTOPHE GAUTHIER. (Etudes et Rencontres de I'Ecole des Chartes, i8) Paris: Ecole des Chartes. 2oo6. I50 pp. f25. ISBN 978-2 90079I-78-3. Georges Bataille is best known to contemporary readers as a proponent of waste, prodigality, and transgression. But thewriter was also an illustrious if wayward son of theprestigious Ecole des Chartes, entrusted since...