Paul Nizan
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Paul-Yves Nizan (; 7 February 1905 – 23 May 1940) was a French philosopher and writer. He was born in
Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
,
Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...
at the Lycée Henri IV. He became a member of the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
, and much of his writing reflects his political beliefs, although he resigned from the party soon after the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
in 1939. He died in the
Battle of Dunkirk The Battle of Dunkirk () was fought around the French Third Republic, French port of Dunkirk, Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies of World War II, Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle ...
, fighting against the German army in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. His works include the novels ''Antoine Bloye'' (1933), ''Le Cheval de Troie'' 'The Trojan Horse''and ''La Conspiration'' 'The Conspiracy''(1938), as well as the essays "Les Chiens de garde" The Watchdogs"(1932) and "Aden Arabie" (1931), which introduced him to a new audience when it was republished in 1960 with a foreword by Sartre. In particular, the opening sentence "I was twenty, I won't let anyone say those are the best years of your life" (''J’avais vingt ans. Je ne laisserai personne dire que c’est le plus bel âge de la vie.'') became one of the most influential slogans of student protest during May '68.


Life

Nizan was born to a middle-class family, his father having worked in rail prior to
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Nizan's father's course through the bureaucracy of French industry would later form the basis of ''Antoine Bloye'', and serve as a significant point of development for Nizan's understanding of social alienation. He interrupted his studies at the
École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
of the
University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
in 1926 to leave for Aden where he worked as tutor to the son of French-born businessman-millionaire Antonin Besse. He drew upon his six-month experience in Aden to write his first novella, ''Aden Arabie'', published in 1931. Nizan then entered into a number of miscellaneous jobs around the French Communist Party (PCF), writing for its journal prominently and even, at one point, running a party bookshop in Paris. Nizan later took up a professorship teaching literature, during which time he took on a reputation among students as an affable and relaxed professor, sometimes even offering his students cigarettes during class. As a teacher, he was reticent about his own perspective on Marxist theory, instead encouraging his students to arrive independently at their own conclusions. Through this period, up to the onset of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Nizan penned all of his major works, including "The Watchdogs", an exposé on
materialist Materialism is a form of philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materia ...
philosophy, and the novels ''Antoine Bloye'' and ''The Conspiracy''. In August 1939, he broke with the
French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...
following the signing of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
. His motive was not a moral judgment against the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
; on the contrary, he criticized the French Communist Party for having lacked cynicism: Given his active participation in the anti-fascist movement, as well as his commitment to the republican cause of the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, Nizan could not accept the party's rapid shift against the Popular Front. Soon thereafter, Nizan enlisted to fight in the French army with the onset of World War II, and was killed in action on 23 May 1940 at the Château de Cocove in Recques-sur-Hem, during the German offensive against Dunkirk.


Politics

Nizan's politics took a number of sporadic turns throughout the course of his life, with Sartre noting that Nizan in his youth had vacillated between fascist and communist sympathies, attracted to both extremes of the political spectrum. Nizan also approached the priesthood as a young man but soon turned away from that decision. Eventually, Nizan settled on membership in the French Communist Party, under whose auspices Nizan's public life as an author began. Within the party, Nizan wrote extensively for official communist publications and had his works sold in party bookstores, although his most celebrated work today is his fiction. In his various novels, Nizan explores modern alienation, as well as the situation of the radical petit-bourgeois milieu caught between contending class forces. While Nizan was a loyal adherent to the policies of the Communist Party, his writings anticipate elements of postwar radical existentialism, leaving the contemporary reader with an ambiguous image of Nizan's political standing.


Works

* ''Aden Arabie'' (1931), (1960) * ''Les Chiens de garde'' he Watchdogs(1932) * ''Antoine Bloye'' (1933) * ''Le Cheval de Troie'' he Trojan Horse(1938) * ''La Conspiration'' he Conspiracy(1938) * ''Morceaux choisis de Marx'' (1934) Introduction by
Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre ( ; ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for furthering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social ...
* ''Chronique de septembre'' (1939) * ''Paul Nizan, intellectuel communiste. Articles et correspondance 1926-1940'' (1967) * ''Pour une nouvelle culture'' (1971) * ''Articles littéraires et politiques'', volume I (2005)


See also

* Emmanuel Todd, his grandson


References

* * *


External links


Paul Nizan Archive
at marxists.org
La nature et l’anthropologie dans ''Antoine Bloyé'' de Paul Nizan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nizan, Paul 1905 births 1940 deaths Writers from Tours, France 20th-century French philosophers École Normale Supérieure alumni French Communist Party members French military personnel killed in World War II Prix Interallié winners Lycée Henri-IV alumni 20th-century French novelists French male essayists French Marxist writers French male novelists 20th-century French essayists French Army personnel of World War II