After the Deluge: New Perspectives on the Intellectual and Cultural History of Postwar France

Description

Madame de Pompadour's famous quip, 'Apr_s nous, le deluge,' serves as fitting inspiration for this lively discussion of postwar French intellectual and cultural life. Over the past thirty years, North American and European scholarship has been significantly transformed by the absorption of poststructuralist and postmodernist theories from French thinkers. But Julian Bourg's seamlessly edited volume proves that, historically speaking, French intellecutal and cultural life since World War Two has involved much more than a few infamous figures and concepts. Motivated by a desire to narrate and contextualize the deluge of 'French theory,' After the Deluge showcases recent work by today's brightest scholars of French intellectual history that historicizes key debates, figures, and turning points in the postwar era of French thought. Relying on primary and archival sources, contributors examine, among other themes: left-wing critiques of the Left, the internationalizing of thought, the institutional and affective conditions of cultural life, and the religious imagination. They revive neglected debates and figures, and they explore the larger impact of political quarrels. In an afterword, preeminent French historian Fran_ois Dosse heralds the arrival of a new generation, a historiographical sensibility that brings fresh, original perspectives and a passion for French history to the contemporary French intellectual arena. After the Deluge adds significant depth and breadth to our understanding of postwar French intellectual and cultural history. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction • Julian Bourg I. HISTORICIZING FRENCH INTELLECTUAL CULTURE 1 Is There Such a Thing as “French Philosophy”? or Why Do We Read the French So Badly? • Alan D. Schrift 2 Against Capitalism? French Theory and the Economy after 1945 • William Gallois 3 The Post-Marx of the Letter • Warren Breckman II. FIGURES: OVERLOOKED AND FAMILIAR 4 A New Generation of Greek Intellectuals in Postwar France • Christophe Premat 5 Kostas Axelos and the World of the Arguments Circle • Stuart Elden 6 “Un contradicteur permanent”: The Ideological and Political Itinerary of Daniel Guérin • David Berry 7 Guy Hocquenghem and the Cultural Revolution in France after May 1968 • Ron Haas 8 The Myth of Emmanuel Levinas • Ethan Kleinberg 9 Raymond Aron: Nationalism and Supranationalism in the Years Following the Second World War • Lucia Bonfreschi III. CULTURAL STRUGGLES/POLITICAL STAKES 10. French Intellectuals and the Repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956: The Politics of a Protest Reconsidered • Michael Scott Christofferson 11. From l’Univers Concentrotionnoire to the Jewish Genocide: Pierre Vidal-Naquet and the Treblinko Controversy • Samuel Moyn 12 French Cultural Policy in Question, 1981–2003 • Philippe Poirrier 13 Religion, Republicanism, and Depoliticization: Two Intellectual Itineraries—Régis Debray and Marcel Gauchet • Michael Behrent Afterword: For Intellectual History • François Dosse Bibliography Index About the Contributors