The Theater of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Giraudoux by Mary
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Guilt and the War Within: The Theater of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Giraudoux by Mary Ann LaMarca Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Professor Alice Y. Kaplan, Supervisor ___________________________ Professor Mary Ann Frese Witt ___________________________ Professor Paol Keineg ___________________________ Professor David F. Bell Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2008 ABSTRACT Guilt and the War Within: The Theater of Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Giraudoux by Mary Ann LaMarca Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Professor Alice Y. Kaplan, Supervisor ___________________________ Professor Mary Ann Frese Witt ___________________________ Professor Paol Keineg ___________________________ Professor David F. Bell An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in French Literature in the Department of Romance Languages in the Graduate School of Duke University 2008 Copyright by Mary Ann LaMarca 2008 Abstract The moral and ethical choices made during the Nazi Occupation of France would echo for generations: they served as a source of pain and pride when the French sought to rebuild their national identity after the ignominy of the defeat, and acted as the foundation for the intellectual legacy on which post-war life stands. In my dissertation I examine the diverse trajectory of two writers, Jean- Paul Sartre and Jean Giraudoux, during the Occupation by focusing on their dramatic works. During this period, no writer could legally exercise his vocation and receive compensation without submitting to certain legalities designed to monitor the content of artistic output. Therefore, any author who published did, at least in some small way, collaborate. This particular line in the sand has become blurred with time and usage. Critics and intellectuals, not to mention the legal system, have initially categorized artists’ politics, then, when the boundaries (or public opinion) have shifted, they have chosen to reclassify. Collaborationist, resistant, or neutral – these three convenient labels cannot do justice to the vast array of colors in the Occupation-era landscape. Writers, like the public at large, responded to the Occupation by becoming extreme collaborators, opportunists, simply earning their daily bread, or becoming fierce resistants, with an infinite number of various roles in between. Although critics have historically attempted to evaluate Jean-Paul Sartre’s and Jean Giraudoux’s actions in order to classify them as “resistant” or “collabo,” this is a iv reductive act. Both men, like so many Frenchmen of this period, made an infinite number of small and large decisions that refracted their post-war image according to which critic held the prism. The historiography with regards to this era has dramatically changed. Must the manner in which we “categorize” these two authors not change accordingly? With this question in mind, I have carefully studied the authors’ primary texts (plays, essays, critiques, memoirs, and letters). In particular, I focus on their theatrical offerings: Les mouches, Huis clos, and La Folle de Chaillot, as these are their best-known works of the era. Next, I examined biographies of the Sartre and Giraudoux (as well as other major historical, political, and literary figures) in order to gain as much background information as possible, and moreover, to identify both tendencies and discrepancies with regards to the authors. After this I sifted through the contemporary press related to these two authors, including theatrical reviews of their plays, their own publications in order re-evaluate the Occupation-era theatrical offerings of Sartre and Giraudoux. I have chosen to focus mainly on their plays from the era, as it those are their best-known works, and the those which had the most influence, in creating their political legacy and reputation during the Occupation. Finally, I applied the theories from contemporary historians – Robert Paxton, Henry Rousso, Philippe Burrin, and Gisèle Sapiro among others – in order to develop my own analysis of the theater of Sartre and Giraudoux and their post-war legacy. v Themes centering on guilt and condemnation abound during the war, especially in these three works. Fueled by De Gaulle’s myths of an almost unilaterally resistant French population, the immediate post-war period focused on deliverance from an exterior enemy. However, contrary to popular interpretation, the plays in my corpus condemn the enemy within, the French betrayal of the French. vi Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Richard and Ann LaMarca, who always said I could do whatever I set my mind to, and who gave me the strength, confidence, and moral support that I needed. It is also dedicated to my sister Roxanne, whose many phone calls and help though any number of moves kept me smiling. And also to the friends who kept me sane through this process. I love you all! vii Contents Abstract……………………………………………………..…………………..………..iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………ix Introduction……………………………………………………………………………....10 1. Chapter One: Sartre: Engaged Opportunist, Opportunistically Engaged, or Belated Prise de Conscience?.............................................................................................29 2. Chapter Two: Les Mouches: Flies and Existentialist Freedeom……………………..82 3. Chapter Three: Huis clos: Sartre Smacks Vichy with Its Own Satin Slipper……….139 4. Chapter Four: Giraudoux: Collabo, Résistant, or None of the Above? ....................183 5. Chapter Five: La Folle de Chaillot: Crazy Like a Fox………..…………….……..238 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………..289 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………....299 Biography………………………………………………………………………………315 viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my director, Professor Alice Kaplan, whose wise advice, patience, and guidance helped make this possible. I have learned so much from you in so many areas, I cannot thank you enough. You have have pushed me when I needed pushing, and thanks to you, I have surprised myself with what I could accomplish. I would also like to thank Professor Mary Ann Frese Witt, who was more of a co-director than a second reader, and who offered such valuable insight into French theater during the Occupation. I feel truly blessed to have worked with such knowledgeable women, whose specialities complimented each other so well. I would also like to thank Professor Paol Keineg and Professor David Bell for their support and willingness to help with this project. Thank you to Professor Linda Orr for all her guidance when I was writing the course description for my “French Theater Under the Occupation” class. I also have to acknowledge Professor Michael Berkvam at Indiana University, whose courses sparked my interest in Sartre as an undergraduate and who started me off on this journey. And finally, Professor Michèle Boularès, whose patience and dedication I admire, and wish to emulate. Thank you all! ix Introduction The German Occupation forced artists, politicians, factory workers, teachers, housewives (in fact, the entire population) into ethical gray areas. Many activities taken for granted before the war were suddenly illegal. For example, if you wrote a letter to the newspaper criticizing a decision by a certain member of the government, you might hear a knock at the door and find two policemen waiting. Or if your neighbor disliked you they might send an anonymous letter denouncing you with the same result. If you were a Jew, you suddenly lost any government contracts or could not exercise your profession.1 What was right? What was moral? Indeed, how does one even define the word “moral” when it is so open to interpretation given an individual’s religious, social, ethnic, and political background? A writer, for example, had to pass a wide variety of censors, both German and French. Post-war critics have often categorized these criteria in the same manner. Nazi and Vichy censors did not necessarily impose the same restrictions. Vichy censors were in a sense even stricter, in that they also tried to impose a convoluted Catholic sense of morality on published texts or performances.2 For example, Cocteau’s Les parents terribles, although famously lambasted for its immorality by the Collaborationist press in 1 André Kaspi, Les Juifs pendant l’Occupation (Paris : Seuil, 1991), 114-117. Kaspi details the situation of the Jews of both French and foreign origin, and explains the social, personal, and economic effects of the economic Aryanisation in France. René Château also explains the effects the Aryanisation of the cinema, including the take-over of such cinematic firms as Pathé, as well as the vilification of its former president, Bernard Natan, in the press. Château., Réné. Le cinema Français sous l’Occupation: 1940-1944. (Courbevoie: Editions René Château et La Mémoire du Cinéma, 1994), 120. 2 Patrick Marsh, Eds. Gerhard Hischfeld and Patrick Marsh, “The Theatre” in Collaboration in France:Politics and Culture during the Nazi Ocupation, 1940-1944 (New York: Berg, 1989). According to Marsh, the Germans at first attempted to reestablish “an air of normality to the capital,” but in Paris Jews and foreign nationals were prohibited from working