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| Lucien Rebatet | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lucien Rebatet |
| Birth date | 6 November 1903 |
| Death date | 21 October 1972 |
| Birth place | Lyon, France |
| Occupation | Journalist, essayist, novelist, music critic |
| Notable works | Les Décombres, Histoire de la musique |
Lucien Rebatet was a French journalist, novelist, and music critic whose career combined prolific cultural criticism with virulent political collaboration during the German occupation of France. He became notorious for incendiary polemics in the 1930s and 1940s and for supporting the Axis powers during World War II, later serving a prison sentence before resuming literary activity in exile. His oeuvre spans journalism, fiction, and music historiography, provoking sustained debate among commentators, historians, and literary critics.
Born in Lyon, Rebatet studied in local schools before attending institutions in Paris where he encountered literary circles associated with Marcel Proust, André Gide, Paul Valéry, Charles Maurras, and other interwar figures. During formative years he frequented cafés and salons linked to Montparnasse, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and the Collège de France milieu, reading periodicals such as Le Figaro, L'Humanité, and La Revue des Deux Mondes. His early intellectual formation was influenced by debates around Dreyfus Affair aftereffects, the legacy of Third French Republic politics, and cultural controversies involving Ferdinand Céline, Jean Giono, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
Rebatet began writing for provincial newspapers and later contributed to Parisian titles including Gringoire, Le Petit Parisien, Je Suis Partout, Candide, and La Gerbe. As a music critic he engaged with repertoires linked to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Igor Stravinsky, and Claude Debussy, and reviewed performances at venues such as Opéra Garnier, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and festivals like Bayreuth Festival and Salzburg Festival. His film and literary criticism addressed works by Jean Cocteau, René Clair, Marcel Carné, Jean Renoir, Marcel Pagnol, and authors associated with surrealism and existentialism movements. As an essayist he published in reviews alongside figures like Maurice Barrès, Anatole France, Henri Bergson, and Émile Zola.
During the 1930s and 1940s Rebatet became associated with right-wing and nationalist circles aligned with Action Française, La Cagoule, and elements of the Vichy regime. He wrote polemics sympathetic to Nazi Germany, praising leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, and the Schutzstaffel's ideological positions while attacking opponents like Popular Front politicians, Léon Blum, Charles de Gaulle, Pierre Laval, and Édouard Daladier. His articles in collaborationist outlets advocated policies consonant with Milice française initiatives and with propaganda organs linked to Propaganda Staffel activities and German occupation authorities including Nazi propaganda. He also engaged with networks connected to Militärverwaltung in Frankreich and cultural exchanges promoted by Goebbels's ministry.
After Liberation he was arrested during the Épuration légale proceedings that targeted collaborators such as members of Milice, Jacques Doriot supporters, and editors of Je Suis Partout. Tried alongside other prominent accused collaborators like Robert Brasillach and Marcel Déat, he faced charges tied to collaboration, dissemination of propaganda, and incitement. Sentenced during postwar tribunals shaped by the provisional authorities of Provisional Government of the French Republic, he received a severe penalty including imprisonment and civic degradation. Following release he spent periods in exile and maintained contacts with émigré circles around cities such as Barcelona, Geneva, Milan, and Zurich while corresponding with figures in literary and musical life.
Rebatet's major literary works include the controversial novel Les Décombres and the multi-volume Histoire de la musique, as well as collections of essays and reviews on writers and composers such as Gustave Flaubert, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Giacomo Puccini, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, and Maurice Ravel. His style combined erudition comparable to critics like Roland Barthes and Julien Gracq with polemical intensity recalling Charles Maurras and Joris-Karl Huysmans. Reception varied: conservative reviewers in titles like Le Figaro and Spectator occasionally praised his musical scholarship, while left-leaning and anti-fascist critics associated with Les Temps Modernes, Commune, and L'Humanité condemned his politics and dismissed his aesthetic judgments. Postwar debates among historians and literary scholars—such as those affiliated with Université Paris-Sorbonne, Collège de France, and the École Normale Supérieure—have grappled with separating his artistic contributions from his political record.
Rebatet's legacy remains contested: cultural institutions like Bibliothèque nationale de France and musicological societies have archived his writings even as memorialists and anti-fascist organizations such as Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peuples and LICRA have campaigned against rehabilitation. Scholars in historiography and memory studies reference his case alongside controversies involving figures like Paul Morand, Philippe Pétain, Robert Brasillach, and Marcel Déat when discussing collaboration, censorship, and postwar reckoning. Debates persist in journals tied to Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent, and university departments in Paris, Lyon, and Marseille over how to assess his contributions to musicology and literature given his political alignment. The polarizing nature of his career ensures continued attention in studies of twentieth-century French literature, cultural criticism, and the ethics of artistic legacy.
Category:French writers Category:1903 births Category:1972 deaths