Konserwatyzm narodowy Maurice’a Barrèsa jako sprzeciw wobec nowoczesnej ideologizacji życia zbiorowego

The subject of the article is the philosophical and political concept of Maurice Barrès (1862–1923), French writer and thinker, the most important next to Charles Maurras, a national-conservative thinker in the Third French Republic. The author argues that the topicality of Barrès’ concept lies in revealing the threat arising from the desire to fully reflect reality in political ideologies. The hermeneutic exegesis of Barrès’s concept avoids its superficial reading as chauvinistic or internally incoherent. The author situates it as an ideological and historical context as a polemic with official ideology of the Third Republic, that is, Charles Renouvier’s neocantism. Its links with the concepts of Ernest Renan and Hyppolite Taine, writers combining individualism and agnosticism with conservatism, are revealed. The author points out that Barrès’ opposition to the ideologization of collective life resulted from his concept of man. In the course of its evolution — the transition from ‘The Cult of Self’ to conservatism, its individualistic aspect has been preserved. This justified both the valorisation of the nation as one of the sources of the self’s identity and the rejection of chauvinistic approaches to nationalism, not taking into account other factors forming the human identity, i.e. the region and the universal community. It also justified the rejection of ideological apriorism in politics and political projects.

Louis Cardinal Billot, S.J. (1846–1931): Thomist, Anti-Modernist, Integralist

Largely forgotten today, the French Jesuit Louis Billot was “the most important Thomistic speculative theologian of the late nineteenth century.” He taught generations of students at the Pontifical Gregorian University during the pontificates of Leo xiii and Pius x. His neo-Scholastic manuals remained influential until the Second Vatican Council. Having made a major contribution to the church’s anti-Modernist campaign, Billot was made a cardinal in 1910. He served on various Vatican congregations, including the Holy Office, during three pontificates. In the 1920s, Billot ran afoul of Pius xi for refusing to retract his support for the neo-monarchist, nationalist movement Action Française, led by the agnostic Charles Maurras, that had sought an alliance with French Catholics to defeat the anti-clerical Third Republic. Compelled to resign his cardinatial dignity, the only prelate in the twentieth century to incur this humiliation, Billot lived his last years in quiet retirement outside of Rome.

Quando l'Action Française rientrò nell'alveo dei nazionalismi ammessi dalla Chiesa

L'articolo integra, sulla base della documentazione degli archivi vaticani, quanto messo a fuoco dalla storiografia sull'impatto nel mondo cattolico ed ecclesiastico francesi del decreto del Sant'Offizio che nel 1926 mise all'Indice alcune opere di Charles Maurras e il giornale L'Action Française. Ricostruisce poi per la prima volta, attraverso fonti del Sant'Offizio, il processo decisionale che portò il 10 luglio del 1939 al decreto con il quale il quotidiano fu ritirato dall'Indice, pur restando la precedente interdizione di alcune opere di Maurras e del giornale fino a quel momento. In un decennio segnato dalla minaccia rappresentata dai nazionalismi e dagli antisemitismi di Stato, l'articolo conferma che in tutta la vicenda la questione disciplinare prevalse di gran lunga su quella dottrinale, che prestò scarsissima attenzione alle principali caratteristiche, come la politique d'abord, dell'Action Française: il «nazionalismo integrale» e l'antisemitismo. Infine, l'articolo mette in luce il ruolo del cardinale Ottaviani e la discontinuità tra Pio XII e il suo predecessore.

Tintin ‘In Black and White’

The Tintin albums that were first printed in black and white offer a revealing picture of the conservative, Catholic, nationalist climate in which the young Hergé was immersed in the 1920s and 1930s. Taken together, they offer a coherent vision of the world. Tintin sometimes takes on the role of a pious young hero, and a character such as Rastapopoulos may seem like a perfect illustration of the enemy as defined by a writer like Charles Maurras. But Belgian conservative Catholics also had a powerful social mission. From the Congolese escapade up to L’Oreille cassée [ Tintin and the Broken Ear ], Tintin is combating the same proponents of Anglo-American cosmopolitan capitalism. Conversely, he comes to the help of the poor and needy, reactivating a whole Christian iconography of charity, as, for example, when he rescues Tchang from drowning in Le Lotus bleu [ The Blue Lotus ].

Tintin ‘In Black and White’

The Tintin albums that were first printed in black and white offer a revealing picture of the conservative, Catholic, nationalist climate in which the young Hergé was immersed in the 1920s and 1930s. Taken together, they offer a coherent vision of the world. Tintin sometimes takes on the role of a pious young hero, and a character such as Rastapopoulos may seem like a perfect illustration of the enemy as defined by a writer like Charles Maurras. But Belgian conservative Catholics also had a powerful social mission. From the Congolese escapade up to L’Oreille cassée [ Tintin and the Broken Ear ], Tintin is combating the same proponents of Anglo-American cosmopolitan capitalism. Conversely, he comes to the help of the poor and needy, reactivating a whole Christian iconography of charity, as, for example, when he rescues Tchang from drowning in Le Lotus bleu [ The Blue Lotus ].

« Contre tous les youpins du monde » : la ville de Québec au temps de l’antisémitisme (1890–1914)

In 1912, Charles Maurras mentioned in the Parisian publication l’Action française “the importance of anti-Semitism in Quebec City.” A city founded on a strong ethno-linguistic duality, Quebec City’s character changed considerably at the turn of the 20th century. Industrialization, immigration, the predominant conception of the nation-state and the magisterium of the Church upset a city that seemed to be experiencing a difficult transition. Ridden with anxiety, a certain elite is attacking a vulnerable minority on a daily basis. Thus a noisy anti-Semitism takes shape, regularly feeding a chimerical representation of the Jew which, by the effect of imbalance between reality and the imaginary, between truth and lies, generates nocuous tensions.En 1912, Charles Maurras mentionne dans l’Action française de Paris « l’importance de l’antisémitisme à Québec ». Ville fondée sur une forte dualité ethno-linguistique, Québec voit au tournant du XXe siècle son visage changer considérablement. L’industrialisation, l’immigration, la conception prédominante de l’État nation et le Magistère de l’Église bousculent une Cité qui paraît mal vivre la transition. Rongée par l’angoisse, une certaine élite s’en prend alors quotidiennement à une minorité vulnérable. Ainsi prend forme un antisémitisme tapageur nourrissant régulièrement une représentation chimérique du Juif et qui, par effet de déséquilibre entre la réalité et l’imaginaire, entre le vrai et le leurre, génère de funestes tensions.

Barrés y Maurras, lectores de Baudelaire:

La herencia baudelaireana -entendida no solamente como la lectura de la obra y la figura del autor de Les fleurs du mal, sino también como sus efectos sobre las nuevas gene-raciones literarias y sobre la vida cultural en sentido amplio- es un tópico recurrente en las reflexiones en torno a la literatura tanto de Maurice Barrès como de Charles Maurras. Para estas figuras fundacionales del nacionalismo francés, Baudelaire constituye la expresión de un «romanticismo» estre-chamente ligado con la «enferme-dad» y la «decadencia» propias de la modernidad, que demanda, sin embar-go, posicionamientos diversos, casi opuestos. Baudelaire es mucho más que una referencia literaria, y se convierte en la cifra o contraseña que dispara toda una serie de considera-ciones en torno al clasicismo, el romanticismo, la autonomía literaria, la oposición nacionalismo / cosmopo-litismo, el futuro de Europa, la integridad del «yo» y la valoración de las tradiciones antigua y moderna.

“Defender of the West”: Henri Massis against Spengler, Hitler and Germany

This article analyzes the position on German civilization and different political regimes in Germany of the French conservative political philosopher Henri Massis (1886-1970). Catholic and French nationalist, follower of Maurice Barrès and Charles Maurras, Massis during all his life remained a Germanophobe and saw Germany, as well as Russia, not belonging to European civilization and being a dangerous enemies of the “West”. According to Massis ‘the West’ was limited to the Roman-Catholic part of Europe with France in the center, as the inheritor of Hellenized Christian Rome. Massis considered that civilization as the sole ‘authentic’ one. For many years Massis critisized the views of Oswald Spengler as representative of the “catastrophic theory of history” and precursor of national socialism.

Against Anarchy and Hitler: French Nationalism and Spanish Civil War

Combination of internal political and social crisis with armed conflict in the neighbour country behind the less dangerous frontier without any possibility of obtaining fastly any real aid from allies is one of the worst possible political scenarios in the time of peace. France faced such a situation in 1936 after her Popular Front’s electoral victory and the beginnig of military mutiny in Spain provoqued by further escalation of internal political struggle. Mutiny developed into civil war that, beeing local geographically, became a global political problem because it troubled many great powers and first of all France. This article depicts and analyzes position and views on Spanish civil war and its antecedents of French nationalist royalist movement «Action française» leaded by Charles Maurras (1868–1952) and her allies in next generations of French nationalists – philosopher and political writer Henri Massis (1886–1970) and novelist Robert Brasillach (1909–1945). All of them from the first day hailed Spanish Nationalist cause and were sure in her final victory so took side against any French help, first of all military, to Spanish Republican government, propagated Franco’s political program, denounced Soviet intervention into Spanish affairs and “Communist threat”. Staying for Catholic and Latin unity French nationalists were anxious to prevent Franco’s rapprochement with Nazi Germany that they regarded as France’s “hereditary emeny” notwithstanding of political regime. Trips of Maurras and Massis to Spain in 1938 and theirs meetings with Franco were aimed to demonstrate this kind of unity with silent but clear anti-German overtone. Brasillach’s “History of War in Spain” (1939) became the first French overview of the events from Nationalist point of view.