The aesthetics of hate : far-right intellectuals, antisemitism, and gender in 1930s France

385 Pages·2013·29.15 MB·English

by  Sanos

THE AESTHETICS OF HATE

T H E A E S T H E T I C S O F H AT E
Far-Right Intellectuals, Antisemitism, and Gender in 1930s France
S A N D R I N E S A N O S
Stanford University Press • Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2013 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
This book has been published with the assistance of the Claudia Clark–Rebecca Gershenson–
Megan McClintock Memorial Fund of the History Department of Rutgers, the State University
of New Jersey–New Brunswick, and the Joe B. Frantz History Enhancement Fund at Texas A&M
University—Corpus Christi.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sanos, Sandrine, author.
The aesthetics of hate : far-right intellectuals, antisemitism, and gender in 1930s France /
Sandrine Sanos.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8047-7457-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Right-wing extremists—France—History—20th century. 2. Radicalism—France—History—
20th century. 3. Antisemitism—France—History—20th century. 4. Masculinity—France—
History—20th century. 5. Fascist aesthetics—France—History—20th century. 6. Politics
and literature—France—History—20th century. 7. France—Intellectual life—20th century.
8. France—Politics and government—1914–1940. I. Title.
hn440.r3s26 2012
303.48'40944—dc23
2012014036
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/14 Minion Pro
À mes parents, Louise et Serge Sanos,
à qui je dois tout et sans qui rien n’aurait été possible.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 “The Crisis Is in Man”:
The Nation, the Self, and Cultural Politics in the 1930s 15
2 A Genealogy of the Far Right 43
3 “Will We Get Out of French Abjection?”
The Politics and Aesthetic Insurgency of the Young New Right 75
4 The Absent Author:
Maurice Blanchot and the Subjection of Politics 118
5 “Negroid Jews Against White Men”:
Louis-Ferdinand Céline and the Politics of Literature 158
6 The Race of Fascism: Je Suis Partout, Race, and Culture 194
Conclusion 245
Notes 261
Bibliography 333
Index 355

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book took many years to bring to fruition, and because of this, it bears
the traces—some visible, some not—of the conversations that have shaped and
inflected it. Among other things, it stands as a testament to those whose friend-
ship has sustained me. Whatever remains of failings and weaknesses are, inevi-
tably, of my own doing.
To write, one needs not only a place but time and comfort, and I have been
fortunate to receive material support that helped in the making of this book.
While at Rutgers University, I benefited from the generous institutional sup-
port of its history department, grants from the Vidal Sassoon International
Center for the Study of Antisemitism at Hebrew University, residence as a fel-
low at the Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture (Rutgers
University), and later a research grant from Earlham College. Finally, a sum-
mer stay at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton gave me the precious
time, resources, and peace needed to complete this work. At the same time, I
am indebted to many individuals who, in both small and important ways, have
encouraged me and helped with this project. I would like to thank the archi-
vists at the Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine in
Nanterre, especially Grégory Cingal. At Earlham College, the late Bob South-
ard’s faith in my project and his boundless knowledge of Jewish history, JoAnn
Martin’s incisive comments, and Anupama Arora’s astute questions, generous
encouragement, and rigorous editorial eye helped me begin revising. I am
also grateful for the support afforded me by my colleagues in the history de-
partment at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. I would especially like to
warmly thank the anonymous readers whose sharp and thoughtful comments
were crucial in shaping the final manuscript into an intelligible and cogent
book. I am also thankful to Chloe Piene for allowing me to use her work for the
book cover, and to William Schmiechen, who introduced me to it. Last, but not
least, I am grateful to Norris Pope for taking an interest in this project and for