"L'Eglise Invisible" and "La Maison du Messie Charnel": The Saintly and Prophetic Voices of Les Grands cimetieres sous la lune
2001; University of Nebraska Press; Volume: 26; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/frf.2001.0017
ISSN1534-1836
Autores Tópico(s)French Literature and Criticism
ResumoIn a characteristically audacious moment in Les Grands cimetières sous la lune (1938 ), Georges Bernanos imagines the funeral of his former political ally and "maître," 2 Charles Maurras, as "une grande manifestation d'union nationale"--only to declare that "on n'y verra pas Drumont, ni Péguy, ni moi." 3 Writing in 1937 , six years after his stormy break with Maurras, Bernanos makes his present allegiances clear. That he buries a living "maître" while resuscitating two others, long dead, is not in itself surprising. Nor is it difficult to conceive either Edouard Drumont or Charles Péguy, as Bernanos imagines now one, now the other, snubbing Maurras along with him. It is their proximity that gives us pause. Only in Bernanos, and especially beginning with Les Grands cimetières, do we find Drumont and Péguy hailed as partners in influence. 4 Bernanos, of course, looked well beyond their vehement opposition from either side of the Dreyfusard divide. He saw each as the author of an impassioned denunciation of modern politics and society: Péguy, disabused Socialist turned monarchist, lone defender of mystique over politique; 5 "le vieux" Drumont--after the Affair, after the decline of La Libre parole--obscure prophet of La Fin d'un monde (1889 ). Even if we concentrate on whatever their destinies may have had in common, suspending other associations--Drumont's frenzied vilification of Jews in La France juive (1886 ), Péguy's near-sanctification of Bernard Lazare in Notre jeunesse (1910 )--these two remain an odd pair of masters.
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