Reconciling France: Jean Paulhan and the "Nouvelle Revue Francaise," 1953

Abstract

Almost ten years after it had closed down in 1943, the prestigious review La Nouvelle Revue Frangaise reappeared on 1 January 1953. Superficially, the only change was in the additional adjective fixed to its title, La Nouvelle Nouvelle Revue Frangaise (hereafter designated as Nouvelle NRF). This was a literary and cultural event of great significance, since it was covered by a wide range of French, British, and other foreign newspapers and periodicals. Although its editors-Jean Paulhan and Marcel Arland-had hoped to resurrect their review without attracting controversy, news of its impending appearance triggered a bitter polemical attack from Frangois Mauriac, who, as director of the competitor-review La Table Ronde, viewed the resurrection as a threat and a scandal. What was so scandalous in 1953 was that the NRF-the review which had closed down in 1943 under the direction of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle-had been a leading cultural organ of the Collaboration. This had come about because in late 1940, after the Occupation began, the NRF had been considered such an important institution that Otto Abetz, Hitler's ambassador in Paris, insisted that it should start up again. Indeed, the Germans bestowed greater cultural preponderance upon the NRF than upon the venerable and pro-P6tain Revue des Deux Mondes. In 1953, therefore, the reappearance of the NRF was thought on the one hand to present an uncomfortable reminder of French intellectual collaboration with the occupier. On the other hand, Jean Paulhan and Marcel Arland believed that they were rendering a service by restoring an important pillar to the battered edifice of French cultural identity. Drawing on published and unpublished sources from the archives of Jean Paulhan, this article will retrace the major phases of the appearance of the Nouvelle NRF, and explain why this was so important in the national cultural context of the time.2