Catani, Damian (2016) Louis-Ferdinand Céline, literary genius or national pariah? Defining moral parameters for influential cultural figures, post- Charlie Hebdo. French Cultural Studies 27 (3), pp. 268-278. ISSN 0957-1558.
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Abstract
In January 2011 the French Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, withdrew Louis-Ferdinand Céline from a list of famous French authors specifically selected for a national celebration of culture. This bold decision polarized opinion: while many welcomed Mitterrand’s intervention, a number of prominent writers, some of them Jewish, opposed it on the grounds that Céline’s abhorrent political beliefs – expressed in three anti-Semitic pamphlets and his flirtation with Nazism- should in no way detract from his literary genius. In the light of this controversy, and of the rise in anti-Semitism following the Charlie Hebdo attacks of January 2015, this paper proposes Céline as a vital case study of the moral parameters a democratic nation should apply to a culturally important figure whose political views are deemed unacceptably reactionary.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Charlie Hebdo, Frédéric Mitterrand, cultural history, anti-Semitism, épuration, engagement, religion, race |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Aesthetics of Kinship and Community, Birkbeck Research in (BRAKC) |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Aug 2016 12:47 |
| Last Modified: | 09 Aug 2023 12:37 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/13208 |
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