There is hardly any other politically committed chanson from France which received as much response worldwide as “Le déserteur” by Boris Vian. “Le déserteur” was censored by French public radio and caused great unrest during the already heated period of the Indochinese and Algerian wars of independence. With the pacifist Easter March movement in Germany and a few years later with the increasing protest against the Vietnam War, the war resister became a symbol of various political struggles that allied a generation. From a transnational perspective, this essay examines the reception and appropriation of this subversive protest song that conveyed war resistance and disobedience.
Das Protestlied „Le déserteur“ von Boris Vian: Wahrnehmung und Aneignung in Frankreich und in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland der 1960er Jahre
