The Americanization of "Marianne" — the New French Preoccupation
| Published date | 01 March 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591297002300104 |
| Date | 01 March 1970 |
| Author | H.S. Kartadjoemena |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
74
THE
AMERICANIZATION
OF
"MARIANNE" — THE
NEW
FRENCH
PREOCCUPATION
H.
S.
KARTADJOEMENA
Rome,
Italy
HE
APPEARANCE
of
the
book
Le
Défi
amiricain
by
Jean-Jacques
Servan-
Schreiber,
the
editor
of
the
Paris
newsweekly
L’ Exprèss,
has
provoked
dis-
cussions
in
French
intellectual
and
political
circles
which
can
perhaps
now
be
called
the
new
French
preoccupation.
The
book
itself
is
not
strikingly
original.
Nevertheless
it is
a
constructive
as
well
as
an
important
book,
for
it
outlines
issues
which
others
have
expressed
in
rather
incomplete
fashion.
Furthermore,
it
repre-
sents
a
focal
point
of
the
issues
upon
which
the
&dquo;new&dquo;
Frenchmen
of
the
coming
generation
of
leaders
are
likely
to
concentrate.
Lately,
it
has
become
the
conversa-
tion
topic
in
public
discussions
among
the
intellectual
and
political
elites.
The
book
has
become
the
subject
of
debate
between
two
of
the
most
promising
young
political
leaders
who
are
likely
to
play
important
roles
in
post
de
Gaulle
France.
These
are
the
leaders
of
the
noncommunist
leftist
Federation,
M.
François
Mittenrand,
a
former
presidential
candidate
who
ran
against
de
Gaulle
during
the
December
1965
presidential
election
(and
who
received,
on
the
second
ballot,
45.50
percent
of
the
vote
cast,
against
de
Gaulle’s
54.49
percent 1 ) ,
and
M.
Val6ry
Giscard
d’Estaing,
former
Minister
of
Finance,
an
independent
&dquo;neo-mod6re&dquo;
and
member
of
the
majority.
The
debate
was
broadcast
on
the
Europe
No.
I
radio.2
The
discussion
went
even
as
far
as
the
President
of
the
Republic
at
the
Elysee
Palace,
during
a
press
conference,
which
in
the
rituals
of
Gaullism,
was
a
solemn
occasion.
Here,
where
the
General
usually
explained
what
he
thought
to
be
the
present
state
of
the
world
and
what
he
intended
to
do,
he
dealt
only
with
those
questions
he
wished
to
answer
and
ignored
all
others.
When
asked
whether
he
has
read
Le
Djfi
americain
and
what
he
thought
of
it,
he
replied
curtly
and
under-
standably,
&dquo;Ici,
on
ne
fait
pas
de
publicité
litteraire,&dquo;3
and
proceeded
on
with
his
oracular
pronouncements.
What
is
significant
about
the
book
is
that
it
has
summed
up
the
new
set
of
challenges
facing
the
country,
challenges
which
appear
to
be
regarded
as
genuine
and
serious
by
a
large
part
of
the
influential
groups
in
France.
With
varying
degrees
of
acceptance
by
the
French
public,
books
about
challenges
and
defeats
and
about
the
weaknesses
of
French
society
have
appeared
with
almost
every
crisis
which
the
society
has
faced.
In
a
country
preoccupied
by
the
notion
and
fear
of
defeat,
they
have
played
important
roles
in
her
history.
Since
the
Dreyfus
affair
and
up
to
the
Gaullist
period,
discussions
have
had
a
tendency
to
take
extremist
and
polemic
tones.
But
attempts
to
analyze
contemporary
conditions
as
well
as
to
give
warnings
1
Pierre
Viansson-Ponté,
Bilan
de
la
Ve
République
— les
politiques
(Paris:
Calmann-Lévy,
1967),
p.
256.
2
"MM.
Mitterrand
et
Giscard
d’
Estaing
voient
dans
la
construction
européenne
le
moyen
de
relever
le
défi
américain."
Le
Monde,
October
22-23, 1967,
p.
24.
3
"Les
déclarations
du
Président
de
la
République."
Le
Monde,
November
29,
1967,
pp.
73-74.
75
were
also
made.
During
the
interwar
period,
a
certain
young
colonel
of
the
French
army
wrote
a
book
about
military
strategy
and
advised
measures
for
preparation
against
aggression
which
prescribed
a
series
of
policies
which
are
the
opposite
of
the
Maginot
line
concept.
The
advised
measures
were
not
taken,
and
the
German
war
machine
trampled
the
French
soil
with
ease.
The
colonel
went
to
London,
established
a
government
in
exile,
and
later
became
the
President
of
the
Republic.
In
analyzing
the
defeat,
one
version
was
given
by
Marc
Bloch
in
L’Etrange
défaite,
which
maintains
that
the
defeat
of
France
in
the
face
of
the
German
challenge
was
mainly
intellectual,
a
national
intellectual
defeat
which
included
the
inability
of
the
General
Staff
to
think
in
modern
terms .4
This
intellectual
gap
and
the
internal
wars
which
France
waged
against
herself
were
displayed
by
Herbert
Luethy’s
pro-
found
if
somewhat
dated
book,
France
Against
Herself.
II
To
appreciate
the
flavor
of
the
debate
that
Jean-Jacques
Servan-Schreiber
has
launched,
which
is
really
a
debate
on
modernization,
adaptation,
and
meeting
new
challenges
in
the
context
of
French
society
today,
and
to
examine
how
the
tone
and
emphasis
have
changed,
it
is
perhaps
useful
to
review
the
historical
setting
of
the
society
in
facing
external
challenges.
One
important
point
in
the
evolution
of
French
political
and
social
history
since
the
Revolution
has
been
the
recurrence
of
a
series
of
abstract
ideas,
opposing
ideas
which
tend
to
divide
the
French
people
into
two
opposite
camps
which
cannot
meet.
There
is
no
conclusive
evidence
that
this
situation
has
changed
today.
One
can
list
issues
which
in
the
past
have
divided
the
society,
such
as
church
vs.
state,
clericalism
vs.
laicism,
republicanism
vs.
monar-
chy,
the
nation
vs.
the
individual,
and
so
on.
Furthermore,
there
were
external
factors
which
have
added
to
the
hardening
of
the
positions
of
the
antagonists,
such
as
unpreparedness,
military
defeat,
and
the
violent
losses
of
the
Empire,
which
often
provoked
such
reactions
that
France
has
had
to
deal
with
threats
of
military
seizures
sparked
by
the
anger
and
humiliation
of
the
military.
Add
to
this
the
effects
of
the
two
world
wars
which
ravaged
the
country,
and
one
has
the
makings
of
turbulence
and
the
traces
of
a
national
fiber
which
is
less
than
perfect
and
often
on
the
verge
of
disintegration.
The
aftermath
of
World
War
II
gave
most
European
powers
the
chance
to
readjust
to
the
new
realities
and
to
reconstruct
a
new
Euro-centered
Europe.
For
those
with
overseas
possessions
decolonialization
was
a
painful
but
necessary
process.
Britain
withdrew
most
gracefully
of
the
Europeans
(but
failed
to
be
&dquo;truly
Euro-
pean&dquo;).
Belgium
withdrew
belatedly
and
with
a
stigma
of
irresponsibility
in
train-
ing
the
leaders
of
the
colony.
The
Netherlands
had
to
be
expelled
with
the
help
of
the
Americans.
But
only
in
France
did
decolonialization
provoke
a
near
civil
war.
It
is
therefore
astonishing
to
compare
the
emphasis
of
what
will
likely
be
the
center
of
attention
for
the
era
after
de
Gaulle
with
what
has
been
the
center
of
attention
until
as
recently
as
the
Algerian
independence
in
1962.
The
elimination
of
divisive
issues,
that
is,
issues
which
cannot
be
resolved
by
compromise
and
con-
4
Herbert
Luethy,
France
Against
Herself
(New
York :
Meridian
Books,
1958),
pp.
73-74.
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