Writers in political regims
The current economic crisis makes us possible to raise questions about the role of literature under political regimes in France, the Occupation certainly being the most studied and contested period. First of all, in this article we ask ourselves whether literature transforms itself under a political regime, whether writers find in literature the perfect instrument to defend themselves against a political regime, or whether they just aim at making themselves noticed due to a certain political attitude.
We insist here on the specificity of the French literature developed under the German occupation, on the reactions of some French writers. The analysis of the ideological engagement of French writers or the analysis of their neutrality will bring us toward the study of the war of ideologies; this war triggers the “Jewish problem” and the conflict between French writers.
Keywords: engaged literature, French writers under German occupation, French writers between Nazism and communism, the Jewish problem, Nazi philosophy, Drieu la Rochelle, Robert Brasillach, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, etc.