G. D. Chaitin, The Enemy Within. Culture Wars and Political Identity in Novels of the French Third Republic
CHAITIN, Gilbert D., The Enemy Within. Culture Wars and Political Identity in Novels of the French Third Republic, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2008.
RÉSUMÉ
In The Enemy Within, Gilbert D. Chaitin deepens ourunderstanding of the nature and sources of culture wars during theFrench Third Republic. The psychological trauma caused by the Ferryeducational reform laws of 1880–1882, which strove to create a newnational identity based on secular morality rather than God-givencommandments, pitted Catholics against proponents of lay education andgave rise to novels by Bourget, Barrès, A. France, and Zola.
Bydeploying Lacanian concepts to understand the “erotics of politics”revealed in these novels, Chaitin examines the formation of nationalidentity, offering a new intellectual history of the period andshedding light on the intimate relations among literature, education,philosophy, morality, and political order. The mechanisms described in The Enemy Withinprovide fresh insight into the affective structure of culture wars notonly in the French Third Republic but elsewhere in the world today.