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| Nouvelle Critique | |
|---|---|
| Title | Nouvelle Critique |
| Editor | Raymond Aron, Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Althusser |
| Category | Political and philosophical journal |
| Firstdate | 1948 |
| Finaldate | 1980s |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
Nouvelle Critique Nouvelle Critique was a French Marxist journal founded in 1948 that served as a forum for debates among intellectuals linked to French Communist Party, Existentialism, Structuralism, and Althusserianism. The review functioned as a nexus connecting figures associated with École Normale Supérieure (Paris), Collège de France, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and periodicals such as Les Temps modernes, Parti communiste français (PCF), and Le Monde. Over several decades it mediated disputes involving political actors like Maurice Thorez, Georges Marchais, and cultural figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Louis Althusser.
Nouvelle Critique emerged in postwar France amid intellectual realignments following World War II, the Fourth Republic (France), and the onset of the Cold War. Its origins trace to tensions between émigré and domestic Marxist traditions represented by figures who had engaged with the Spanish Civil War, the 1945 French legislative election, and the politics of reconstruction under Charles de Gaulle. The early editorial line sought to reconcile the philosophical legacy of Karl Marx, the historiographical methods of Marc Bloch, and the sociological questions raised by Émile Durkheim while responding to contemporary arguments by Georges Politzer, Sergio Bologna, and critics from Les Temps modernes.
Key contributors included intellectuals whose careers intersected with major institutions: Louis Althusser (professor at École Normale Supérieure and Collège de France), Raymond Aron in critical exchanges, and younger theorists linked to École pratique des hautes études. Regular authors and interlocutors encompassed Nicos Poulantzas, Roger Garaudy, Pierre Bourdieu, Henri Lefebvre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Cornelius Castoriadis, André Glucksmann, and Claude Lefort. Internationally, the journal engaged with texts by Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin (in polemical contexts), Rosa Luxemburg, and later debates invoking Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze.
Nouvelle Critique promoted readings of Marxist theory that combined rigorous textual exegesis of Das Kapital and selected writings of Friedrich Engels with attention to the methodological innovations of structural Marxism and debates over humanism versus anti-humanism. Its pages hosted discussions of historical materialism as theorized by Karl Marx and further developed in dialogue with Georg Lukács and Antonio Gramsci; methodological exchanges referenced analytic techniques used at Collège de France seminars and comparative approaches found in works by Fernand Braudel and Lucien Febvre. Contributors debated epistemological questions raised by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and critiques drawn from Norbert Elias and Max Weber-influenced historiography. The journal also engaged with developments in psychoanalysis as advanced by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and critiques by Sartre.
As a periodical, Nouvelle Critique published articles, special issues, and translated texts that influenced intellectual currents: analyses of Das Kapital and annotated readings of Theses on Feuerbach, critical essays on History and Class Consciousness-era debates, and interventions into contemporary politics such as critiques of the Suez Crisis and positions on the Algerian War. It serialized debates that later appeared in monographs by participants—essays that fed into books by Louis Althusser, Pierre Bourdieu, Henri Lefebvre, Nicos Poulantzas, and Cornelius Castoriadis. The journal also republished important archival documents from archives like the Archives nationales (France) and texts connected to Cahiers pour l'Analyse.
Nouvelle Critique influenced academic and political spheres through networks linking universities—Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Université Paris Nanterre—and political organizations such as the French Communist Party and various socialist collectives that participated in the events of May 1968 and the intellectual reconfigurations afterward. Its influence extended to comparative debates in Italy and Greece via exchanges with proponents of Operaismo and Eurocommunism; it was cited in policy discussions involving figures from Mitterrand administration circles. Journals and publishing houses like Les Éditions du Seuil and Gallimard cross-referenced its contributions, and its essays became part of curricula at institutions including Sciences Po and research centers such as the Centre d'études des mouvements sociaux.
The journal provoked controversies: critics accused it of doctrinal rigidity aligned with positions defended by leaders such as Maurice Thorez or of theoretical abstraction echoing Stalinist orthodoxy. Debates pitted its defenders against detractors from Les Temps modernes, proponents of existentialism like Jean-Paul Sartre, and later poststructuralists including Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Controversies also involved the journal's stance on events such as the Prague Spring and its responses to critiques by dissident Marxists like Tony Judt and Ernest Mandel. Internal disputes reflected broader ruptures in European Marxism between orthodoxy, revisionism associated with Eurocommunism, and radical renewal tied to movements around May 1968.
Category:French magazines Category:Marxist publications Category:French philosophy