Download (7Mb)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/109857/ Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications MORAL AND POLITICAL VALUES IN THE WRITINGS OF VERCORS Thesis submitted by RUSSELL CLIVE BARNES, M.A. (London), for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK (Department of French Studies) September 1988 TABLE OF CONTENTS (i) Acknowledgements (ii) Summary (iii) Key to abbreviations 1 Introduction 10 Notes on Introduction 11 Chapter One : War, Occupation - and the Emergence of 'Vercors' 52 Notes on Chapter One 66 Chapter Two : Reason, Rebellion and the Moral Code 111 Notes on Chapter Two 121 Chapter Three : Of Animals and Men 157 Notes on Chapter Three 166 Chapter Four : Idealist and Fellow-Traveller 224 Notes on Chapter Four 239 Chapter Five : Decolonisation, Democracy and a Definition of Socialism 281 Notes on Chapter Five 297 Chapter Six : Political Values in Vercors's Fiction 360 Notes on Chapter Six 372 Conclusion 385 Notes on Conclusion 387 Appendix I (Letter from Vercors, 28 January 1984) 391 Appendix II (Interview with Vercors, Paris, 19 March 1984) 399 Appendix III (Letter from Vercors, 25 August 1987) 401 Bibliography (i) Acknowledgement 3 I should like to record my gratitude for the help given to me in my research by the following:- Dr. Nicholas Hewitt, of the Department of French Studies, University of Warwick, for his clear guidance as my supervisor and for many helpful suggestions; Professor Gwynne Lewis, of the Department of History, University of Warwick, for encouragement and advice on background reading; the Staff Development Committee of Bedford College of Higher Education, for the grant of a year's secondment; the Libraries and Library staff of the University of Warwick and of Bedford College of Higher Education; La Bibliothègue Nationale, Paris; La Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine, Université de Paris X, Nanterre; La Bibliothèque Publique d'information, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; La Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris; L'Institut de l'Histoire du Temps Présent, Paris; the French Government (Ministère des Relations Extérieures), for a short-term study grant; Mrs Janet Bailey for her care and patience over the typescript; — and, of course, to Vercors himself for his great kindness in responding to my enquiries by letter and in discussion at his home in Paris. Russell Barnes (ii) Summary This thesis explores Vercors's writings, with particular reference to his moral and political attitudes, from 1942 to the present. It includes his clandestine wartime publications, the subsequent develop ment of his theory of human 'rebellion', with its strong ethical connotations, and the various polemical and fictional texts in which, in the post-war period, he expresses support for communist aims and for progressive causes such as anticolonialism. Vercoic's chairmanship of the CNE in the mid-1950's is examined through his memoirs as well as through his articles and speeches of the time. After the author's overt withdrawal from fellow-travelling in 1957, his more selective political commitment is traced through the remaining years of the Algerian conflict, while the memoirs and other works of reflection that have appeared in the latter part of his career recapitulate the overall development of his political attitudes and reveal certain changes of view. Vercors's more general theory of human value has, on the other hand, remained constant, and he offers it as a starting- point for better understanding between men of all nations and ideologies. The analysis follows this broad chronological pattern, first in relation to the moral elements, then the political; but there is frequent cross- reference between the two aspects, in keeping with the author's own emphasis on their close interconnection in his outlook. The extent of his combined fictional and non-fictional output is such that three successive chapters are devoted to the exploration of his moral attitudes, then three, similarly, to the political responses. There is also reference, where appropriate, to critical commentary on Vercors's work and to other background sources; and the appendices contain Vercors's direct response to specific questions put to him during the preparation of the present study. This thesis is intended to contribute to the field of modern French studies through its comprehensive coverage of Vercors's writing in two major areas of commitment. (iii) Key to abbreviations (in alphabetical order) of works by Vercors, and éditions, referred to in the thesis. Ail texts published in TiFiïï— AD Les Animaux dénaturés, coll: 'Livre de poche', 1982 édition AN Les Armes de la Nuit, Albin Michel, 1951 (with La Puissance du Jour) BS La Bataille du Silence, Presses de la Cité, 1967 CE Les Chemins de l'Etre, Albin Michel, 1965 CF Comme un Frère, Plon, 1973 CJC Ce que je crois, Grasset, 1975 Col Colères, Albin Michel, 1956 DFC Les Divagations d'un Français en Chine, Albin Michel, 1956 LD La Liberté de Décembre, Albin Michel, 1960 MAB Moi, Aristide Briand, Plon, 1981 MP Monsieur Prousthe, Albin Michel, 1958 NJ Les Nouveaux Jours, Plon, 1984 OP Les Occasions perdues, Plon, 1982 PA Portrait d'une Amitié, Albin Michel, 1954 Per Le Périple, Albin Michel, 1958 PJ La Puissance du Jour, Albin Michel, 1951 (with Les Armes de la Nuit) PMH Plus ou moins Homme, Albin Michel, 1950 PPC P.P.C. (Pour Prendre Congé), Albin Michel, 1957 PS Les Pas dans le Sable, Albin Michel, 1954 Q Quota ou les Pléthoriens, Stock, 1966 QMB Questions sur la Vie à Messieurs les Biologistes, Stock, 1973 RM Le Radeau de la Méduse, Presses de la Cité, 1969 SM Le Silence de la Mer, coll: 'Livre de poche', 1983 édition SNS Sens et non-sens de l'Histoire, Galilée, 1978 ST Le Sable du Temps, Emile-Paul Frères, 1947 Sylva Sylva, Grasset, 1961 TA Le Tigre d'Anvers, Plon, 1986 YL Les Yeux et la Lumière, Albin Michel, 1955 Z Zoo, Galilée, 1978 INTRODUCTION Vercors's contribution to French writing over the greater part of the last half-century has been distinctive both in energy of output and in moral seriousness. On the slim foundation-stone of a clandestine 'récit' about the German Occupation, written when he was already approaching middle age, the author has produced some forty fictional or non-fictional works, together with half a dozen theatrical adapta tions of his own and others' texts: in the words of one critic, 'la notoréité soudaine de Vercors a fait de lui un écrivain prolifique, sinon prolixe.'^ In keeping with a well-established intellectual tradition in France he has, moreover, taken a public stance on the major political issues of the day, and in the late 1940's and 1950's he was a notable, if at times uneasy, fellow-traveller. But above all else, as he himself would surely see it, he has tried to shape an enduring moral response to the problem of international tension and conflict. Through his general theory of human identity he has, he hopes, been able to establish a basic premise on which all men every where, of whatever national, religious or ideological allegiance, might achieve mutual recognition and a sense of kinship. If these are the dominant features of Vercors's literary profile, however, they also point to a number of dichotomies or paradoxes which make the analysis of his work both more challenging and intrinsically more rewarding. A key concern of this study will be to examine the interplay between two central elements in his writing, the moral and the political, and it is precisely in this area that some of the more intriguing contrasts become apparent. There is, for example, the dichotomy between the diligent fellow-traveller who voiced strong support for 'l'énorme et courageuse expérience socialiste qui se -2- poursuit de l'Elbe à la mer de Chine',^ and the moralist who embraced Kant's principle that human beings should be treated uniquely as ends in themselves, never as means. And as a corollary to this there is the tension, fully recorded in his writing over several years, between the author and his communist friends over the matter of political lies - lies that Vercors consistently condemned as a virtual crime against humanity but which communist spokesmen had often to propagate in adherence to the Moscow line. But if the importance of truth was a contention that the author maintained in all his writings, while yet supporting the Communists for many years, there are other conflicts in his work which are inherent rather than explicit, consequential rather than intentional. A certain irony can perhaps be seen, for example, in his determination to point out the bond of shared humanity that should override the ideological divisions between men - and the contrasting fact that his vigorously partisan contributions to some of the debates of the 1940's and 1950's (over Pétain, Henri Martin, or the foreign policies of Laniel or Mollet) may, to judge by some contemporary critics' reactions, only have added to the prevailing sectarianism of the times. Vercors has seen it as his duty to speak out firmly and directly in his chosen causes, and through the latter has always aimed to serve generous ideals of fraternity and progress. Arguably, however, his often manichean approach to controversial issues has detracted from the resonance that his concern for mankind's moral inheritance might otherwise have achieved.