Louis Aragon and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle: Servility and Subversion Oana Carmina Cimpean Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College

Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2008 Louis Aragon and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle: Servility and Subversion Oana Carmina Cimpean Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Cimpean, Oana Carmina, "Louis Aragon and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle: Servility and Subversion" (2008). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2283. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2283 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. LOUIS ARAGON AND PIERRE DRIEU LA ROCHELLE: SERVILITYAND SUBVERSION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of French Studies by Oana Carmina Cîmpean B.A., University of Bucharest, 2000 M.A., University of Alabama, 2002 M.A., Louisiana State University, 2004 August, 2008 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my dissertation advisor Professor Alexandre Leupin. Over the past six years, Dr. Leupin has always been there offering me either professional advice or helping me through personal matters. Above all, I want to thank him for constantly expecting more from me. Professor Ellis Sandoz has been the best Dean‘s Representative that any graduate student might wish for. I want to thank him for introducing me to Eric Voegelin‘s work and for all his valuable suggestions. Taking Professor Hervé Cassan‘s class on the history of political thought has helped me understand Aragon and Drieu‘s place in the French political tradition. I am very grateful for that. I would also like to thank Professor Kate Jensen, who has always encouraged me and whose classes have been such a fulfilling experience. My thanks also go to Professor John Protevi for his advice and his enthusiasm for my topic. I am indebted to the French Department for the financial support they have provided me. A special thanks goes to Professor Sylvie Dubois and Mrs. Connie Simpson. I will always be thankful to my readers Stephanie Coker and Lori Knox, who have spent countless hours proofreading my thesis and making it more palatable for native English speakers. I am indebted to my family for their constant support. My mother, Maria Cîmpean, has read books she did not want to read only to be able to discuss my thesis with me. My late father, Laurean Câmpean, and I engaged in so many arguments on communism that I feel ready for any dissertation defense. He would have been happy to actually see me defend. I would also like to thank my grandmother, Aurelia Potor, who would not tolerate my tendencies to procrastinate, and my sister, Loredana Cîmpean, who always tried, unsuccessfully, to convince me that life was ii easy. Finally, I am thankful to Matthew Barganier, who had to cope with daily questions about political history and stylistic conundrums. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………...vi Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: A Flawed World…………………………………………………….17 Critique of Capitalism...………………………………………………………………………….23 a. Capitalism and War……………………………………………………………………….23 b. Capitalism and Nationalism………………………………………………………………26 c. Capitalism and Democracy……………………………………………………………….31 d. Capitalism and the Police State…………………………………………………………...37 e. Capitalism and Individualism……………………………………………………………..39 Critique of Rationalism………………………………………………………………………......46 The Impossible Couple………………………………………………………………………......50 Involvement……………………………………………………………………………………...58 Chapter 2: The “Poetry of Revolution” and the “Prose of Reform”…………65 ―Failed‖ Revolutions…………………………………………………………………………......67 a. Surrealist Irresponsibility…………………………………………………………………67 b. Anarchist Rebuttal………………………………………………………………………...81 The Socialist ―Alternative‖……………………………………………………………………...86 ―Viable‖ Revolutions………………………………………………………………………….....89 a. The Fascist Enterprise…………………………………………………………………….89 b. The Communist Triumph………………………………………………………………..103 The Party as Family…………………………………………………………………………….110 Chapter 3: The New Man……………………………………………………...116 A New Philosophy of History…………………………………………………………………..116 New Communist Literature……………………………………………………………………..120 Drieu‘s Exuberant Fascism……………………………………………………………………..122 a. Gilles…………………………………………………………………………………….129 b. The Hybrid Party………………………………………………………………………...132 c. The Spanish Civil War…………………………………………………………………..136 d. Final Sacrifice……………………………………………………………………………140 Aragon‘s Bourgeois Communism………………………………………………………………143 a. The Break with Tradition………………………………………………………………..144 b. The Crucial Event………………………………………………………………………..150 c. Learning the Language of the Working Class…………………………………………...154 d. The Final Conversion……………………………………………………………………155 iv Chapter 4: Ambivalence……………………………………………………….164 Drieu, the Disillusioned Gnostic……………………………………………………………….164 a. The Failed Empire…………………………………………………………………….....165 b. The Traitor……………………………………………………………………………….177 Louis Aragon, the Insubordinate Communist…………………………………………………..191 a. Flirting with Anarchy……………………………………………………………………193 b. The ―Quest for the Absolute‖……………………………………………………………205 Conclusion………...........……………………………………………………….223 References……………………………………………………………………….228 Vita……………………………………………………………………………....237 v Abstract This dissertation addresses the use of literature in support of political ideologies, starting from the cases of Louis Aragon and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. Aragon and Drieu wrote extensively about man‘s alienation in the modern world and, more importantly, about the possibility of overcoming that alienation. Both argued for the creation of a new man who could erect a new world on the ruins of the old. Though Aragon was a communist and Drieu a fascist, they shared an apocalyptic view of the world and believed themselves to be living in the last stage of history, the prelude to a final revolution. Each designated himself a prophet and offered a formula for the salvation of the world. They were modern, secular Gnostics – believers in the infallibility of their own understanding, convinced that human hands could forge an age of perfection. Treating Aragon and Drieu as modern Gnostics and secular millenarians allows me to explain their systems of belief and the ideological contradictions in their literary works. Aragon and Drieu overlooked the fallacies they advanced in their roles as political prophets, yet as novelists, they divulged their ambivalence and raised discomfiting questions about their own doctrines. My study reveals that the fictions Aragon and Drieu created in their political often fall apart in their works of fiction. Although their literature meant to embrace totalitarianism, it ended up contesting it. As literary figures, neither Aragon nor Drieu were ―slaves‖ of communism or fascism. What ensured their freedom was their subversion of totalitarian ideologies through literature. Yet, their literary subversion ultimately proves their awareness of their ideological errors. vi Introduction The playwright and politician Václav Havel defines an intellectual as a person who ―who has devoted his or her life to thinking in general terms about the affairs of this world and the broader context of things.‖1 Even though other people engage in similar activities, intellectuals differ, in Havel‘s opinion, in that they consider the problems of the world professionally and offer solutions. By contrast, Sergio Luzzatto disparages intellectuals as those who have the bad habit of getting involved in matters that do not concern them.2 Considering the extraordinary number of petitions French intellectuals signed during the 20th century, as carefully compiled by Jean-François Sirinelli,3 one is tempted to agree with Luzzatto. Nonetheless, totalitarian regimes have often used arguments similar to Luzzatto‘s to silence intellectuals protesting governmental abuses. Therefore, I would rephrase Luzzatto‘s indictment: intellectuals often give solutions to problems they do not fully understand, usually because some matters are beyond human understanding. Such was the case with Louis Aragon and Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, two intellectuals who came of age in the tumultuous France of the 1930s. Men of their times, Aragon and Drieu passionately examined their society and offered what they thought were comprehensive solutions. Their scrutiny of the world was unsparing. Most of the fallacious theories they advocated stemmed precisely from overconfidence in the scope of their expertise. 1 Václav Havel, ―The Responsibility of Intellectuals,‖ New York Review of Books (June 1995): 36-7. 2 Sergio Luzzatto, L’impôt du sang: La gauche française à l’épreuve de la guerre mondiale (1900-1945), trans. Simone Carpentari Messina (Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1996), 10. 3 Jean-François Sirinelli, Intellectuels et passions françaises: Manifestes et pétitions au XXe siècle (Paris: Fayard, 1990). 1 Aragon and Drieu wrote extensively about man‘s alienation in the modern world and, more importantly, about the possibility of overcoming that alienation. Both argued

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