Notions of Self and Nation in French Author
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University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 6-27-2016 Notions of Self and Nation in French Author- Aviators of World War II: From Myth to Ambivalence Christopher Kean University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Kean, Christopher, "Notions of Self and Nation in French Author-Aviators of World War II: From Myth to Ambivalence" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 1161. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/1161 Notions of Self and Nation in French Author-Aviators of World War II: From Myth to Ambivalence Christopher Steven Kean, PhD University of Connecticut, 2016 The traditional image of wartime aviators in French culture is an idealized, mythical notion that is inextricably linked with an equally idealized and mythical notion of nationhood. The literary works of three French author-aviators from World War II – Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, Jules Roy, and Romain Gary – reveal an image of the aviator and the writer that operates in a zone between reality and imagination. The purpose of this study is to delineate the elements that make up what I propose is a more complex and even ambivalent image of both individual and nation. Through these three works – Pilote de guerre (Flight to Arras), La Vallée heureuse (The Happy Valley), and La Promesse de l’aube (Promise at Dawn) – this dissertation proposes to uncover not only the figures of individual narratives, but also the figures of “a certain idea of France” during a critical period of that country’s history. The relation between these two intersecting narratives – the individual’s and the nation’s - is a matter of overlapping images based on a cultural past as they are viewed in the present. These include the notions of masculinity, heroism, and nationhood, each of which is a product of a cultural heritage and an imagined self derived from that heritage. Notions of Self and Nation in French Author-Aviators of World War II: From Myth to Ambivalence Christopher Steven Kean B.S., United States Air Force Academy, 1995 M.A., Middlebury College, 1997 M.A., Air University, 2009 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut 2016 ii Copyright by Christopher Steven Kean 2016 iii APPROVAL PAGE Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Notions of Self and Nation in French Author-Aviators of World War II: From Myth to Ambivalence Presented by Christopher Steven Kean, B.S., M.A. Major Advisor _________________________________________________________________ Roger Celestin Associate Advisor ______________________________________________________________ Eliane DalMolin Associate Advisor_______________________________________________________________ Carole Edwards University of Connecticut 2016 iv Table of Contents INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1 SCOPE AND METHODS ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 MYTHS .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 MASCULINITY .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5 HEROISM ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 NATION ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 8 RECYCLING MYTH ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9 HISTORY .................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 GENRES ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 UNITY ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER I – THE SAVIOR ............................................................................................................................... 16 MYTH OF THE AVIATOR .......................................................................................................................................................... 16 Guynemer and the new mold .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Saint-Exupéry, the “traitor” ............................................................................................................................................. 18 BUILDERS OF BOYS, MAKERS OF MEN .................................................................................................................................. 22 Image of a child .................................................................................................................................................................... 23 Transition to manhood ...................................................................................................................................................... 25 Protect me, O Paula! ........................................................................................................................................................... 26 SHOW ME A HERO .................................................................................................................................................................... 29 Système D ................................................................................................................................................................................ 30 Spectrum of internalization ............................................................................................................................................ 33 “L’aventure du corps” ......................................................................................................................................................... 36 WHAT IS A NATION? ............................................................................................................................................................... 41 A cultural past ....................................................................................................................................................................... 44 A sensorial past ..................................................................................................................................................................... 46 A Christian heritage ............................................................................................................................................................ 49 LA CHUTE ................................................................................................................................................................................. 52 Nowhere to run to… ............................................................................................................................................................ 56 BARTHES, “HISTOIRE” ET “NATURE” .................................................................................................................................. 58 L’homme-jet ............................................................................................................................................................................ 60 Le fil du temps ....................................................................................................................................................................... 63 La mort de Saint-Exupéry ................................................................................................................................................ 66 CHAPTER II – THE SOLDIER ........................................................................................................................... 69 FORGING A MYTH ..................................................................................................................................................................... 69 Algeria ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 70 Julius, the soldier .................................................................................................................................................................. 72 Into the fire ............................................................................................................................................................................