Mona Siegel on Gender and Fascism in Modern France
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Melanie Hawthorne, Richard J. Golsan, eds.. Gender and Fascism in Modern France. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997. ix + 229 pp. $19.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-87451-814-6. Reviewed by Mona L. Siegel Published on H-France (March, 1998) In their co-authored introduction to the es‐ will not fnd the answers in this book. Historical says presented in Gender and Fascism in Modern context is not absent from the collective research France, Melanie Hawthorne and Richard Golsan presented here, but it is secondary to the detailed point out that the rich and growing historiogra‐ textual analyses, which are the authors' primary phy on Vichy and fascism in France has been re‐ concern. With these reservations in mind, Gender markably silent when it comes to addressing is‐ and Fascism in Modern France does have its own sues of women and gender. They contrast this gap insights to offer, insights which help to fll out our in French scholarship to the far more developed understanding of the cultural history of French historiography on fascist Italy and Germany. fascism. Pointing to Claudia Koonz's study of women in The collection contains nine topical chapters Nazi Germany, Mothers in the Fatherland (New plus a general introduction and a short but thor‐ York, 1987), and to Victoria de Grazia's work on ough bibliographic essay at the end. The chapters Italy under Mussolini, How Fascism Ruled Women are arranged chronologically, beginning with fe‐ (Berkeley, 1992), as possible models, Hawthorne male anti-Semitism at the end of the nineteenth- and Golsan insist the time has now come for an century and ending with gendered representa‐ historical account of "comparable quality" to be tions of fascism and collaboration in post-1945 published on the French context (p. 4). historical memory. In between, the book is flled This book is not that account. The essays in it, out by two chapters on the 1900s to 1930s and with one exception, are written by literary schol‐ four which deal with the Vichy period itself. The ars. They are concerned strictly with texts: novels, editors contend that the linkage between fascism essays, journalistic articles, memoirs, and flms. and gender, as it is drawn in these articles, "signif‐ Anyone wondering how French women felt about icantly alters traditional perspectives on French Petain's National Revolution; or if Vichy's social culture in this century" (p. 11). This overarching policies changed family strategies; or if collabora‐ claim seems overstated, though some of the es‐ tion meant the same thing for men and women, H-Net Reviews says present new material which will be of inter‐ into the nation to take effect," Hawthorne states, est to historians. "before we conclude that fascism manifests itself The book opens by tracing the origins of only as hypermasculinity" (p. 47). Hawthorne's ar‐ French fascism back to the nationalistic atmos‐ guments are challenging, but not persuasive. phere at the time of the Dreyfus Affair. Willa Sil‐ First, it is not clear that the body of scholarly in‐ verman investigates the interplay of gender and quiry into fascism is permeated by and funda‐ anti-Semitism in the writings of the notoriously mentally limited by psychoanalytic theory, as controversial female author Gyp (nom de plume Hawthorne claims. Hawthorne focuses on Klaus of Sibylle-Gabrielle Marie-Antoinette de Riquetti Theweleit's Male Fantasies, 2 vols. (Minneapolis, de Mirabeau). Silverman argues persuasively that 1986) to demonstrate that scholars have relied Gyp's anti-Semitism was rooted in misogyny. Anx‐ upon "psychoanalytic revisions of Freudian theo‐ ious about her own sexuality and angry at her ry" (p. 29) in order to conclude that fascism as an own powerlessness as a woman, Gyp expressed ideology appeals primarily to men. But are the her frustration through voraciously sexual Jewish historical works of Robert Paxton, John Sweets, characters who personified the author's own self- and Robert Soucy, which also portray French fas‐ hatred. Silverman's essay is lively and interesting, cism as a masculinized affair, equally indebted to but it is difficult to see what broader lessons about Freudian analysis? Second, Hawthorne believes women, gender, or nationalism that we might that "fascism" is a phenomenon which exists out‐ draw from it. In her conclusion, Silverman states side of any specific historical context and thus can that "Gyp's case does not imply...that nationalism assume radically different forms and beliefs in and anti-Semitism...divided along gender lines, different times. She accuses scholars of turning nor that anti-Semitism and misogyny were inex‐ the hypermasculinity of fascism at the turn-of-the- tricably linked" (p. 26). In the end, this essay century into a more general statement of princi‐ stands alone as an insightful case study, but prob‐ ple, falsely assuming that as an ideology, fascism ably cannot lead us to a fundamental rethinking will inevitably continue to reproduce itself along of French anti-Semitism or nationalism. similar lines. But fascism did not look any differ‐ ent in the 1920s, 1930s, or 1940s, the only years in The essay by Melanie Hawthorne's which fol‐ Europe when it became a mass movement. Many lows Silverman's is quite the opposite, insisting historians will have trouble accepting that studies of fascism to date have been funda‐ Hawthorne's thesis and will have difficulty seeing mentally fawed, or, at the very least, constrained how her essay poses a fundamental challenge to by their assumptions. Hawthorne argues that previous scholarly literature. women are commonly absent in studies of French fascism because the psychoanalytic theories used Mary Jean Green picks up the thread of analy‐ to understand nationalism and fascism are gen‐ sis in the 1930s by studying the creation of a fc‐ der-biased, producing male subjects and a mascu‐ tional fascist woman in the popular Bouboule line ideology. In fact, Hawthorne insists, fascism novels by T. Trilby (nom de plume for Therese Del‐ has only appeared to be a masculine doctrine be‐ haye de Marnyhac). Green's essay is frmly cause nationalism has historically been construct‐ grounded in the historiography of French fascism ed along gender lines with women serving as the in the 1930s--particularly that of Soucy--and of glue that holds the nation together, but excluded women and fascism more broadly. Though she from active citizenship (here she is drawing on states at the outset that little is known about the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss). "We must author of the seven Bouboule books, Green effec‐ wait for the full impact of women's assimilation tively uses the main character of these novels in order to bring us closer to the motivations and 2 H-Net Reviews frustrations of women on the far right in interwar opportunity and gain. Both articles reiterate that France. Green traces the development of the fc‐ Vichy's National Revolution was hardly revolu‐ tional Bouboule as she becomes increasingly tionary when it came to conceptions of male and politicized, renounces her identity as a mother, female spheres. Neither, however, suggests that and eventually joins the Croix de feu. Bouboule the experiences of these particular women were tries to become the ideal fascist woman, devoted shared by French women more generally. to her role as wife and mother, but eventually re‐ Andrea Loselle and Anthony Hewitt both ex‐ jects maternalism as an adequate demonstration plore the functioning of gender in the writings of of citizenship. In the last two novels, as she begins male collaborators. Loselle studies the life and to engage actively in the politics of the Croix de writing of Paul Morand and asks why he--unlike feu, Bouboule reverts to her maiden name and Louis-Fernand Celine, Robert Brasillach and oth‐ metaphorically reclaims her identity as a single ers--managed to evade prosecution after 1945 and woman. Green argues that this woman's fctional eventually to gain admittance to the Academie journey mirrors that faced by French women in francaise in 1968. Morand, Loselle argues, es‐ real life. Colonel Francois de la Rocque's Croix de caped censure because his politics tended to be feu exalted domesticity and marginalized its fe‐ coded in gendered terms, casting the disorders of male members. Ultimately, the few women who modernity as feminine. His emphasis on feminine were able to take on leadership roles in the Croix concerns, like fashion, was easily dismissed as su‐ de feu were single women, like de la Rocque's own perficial, while his focus on the dangers of effemi‐ daughter Nadine. By closely relating the fctional nacy and degeneracy of the Third Republic was character of Bouboule to historical accounts of the far from controversial. Hewitt looks at Jean-Paul Croix de feu, Green effectively demonstrates the Sartre's analysis of Jean Genet as a means of "un‐ dilemma of women who sympathized with the derstanding and undoing the conflation of homo‐ ideology of the far-right and tried to live up to its sexuality and fascism" (p. 120). His analysis is ideals, but who ultimately found themselves sti‐ seeped in post-structuralist theory and is rather fled by its marginalization of women. "Caught be‐ impenetrable to those not fully initiated in the jar‐ tween the urgent need to act on her political be‐ gon. liefs and the limitations those same beliefs placed The fnal two essays both analyze the inter‐ on women's freedom of action, Bouboule unwit‐ play of gender, history, and memory through flm. tingly enacts in fction the contradictions at the Miranda Pollard analyzes Marcel Ophuls' The Sor‐ heart of the fascist female ideal" (p. 68). row and the Pity while Leah Hewitt examines Two essays examine the self-reflective writ‐ Claude Chabrol's Story of Women.