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¿El fin del intelectual francés? De Zola a Houellebecq
Ensayista e historiador incómodo y brillante, Shlomo Sand estudia, en esta nueva y controvertida obra, la historia y actualidad de la figura del intelectual francés, trazando un análisis cultural que ilumina la Francia del siglo XX.
Durante sus estudios en París y a lo largo de toda su vida, Shlomo Sand ha frecuentado a los «grandes pensadores franceses», cuyo milieu –el mundo intelectual de París y sus secretos– conoce íntimamente. Con todo este bagaje, el autor examina y desbroza parte de los mitos relacionados con la figura del «intelectual» que Francia se enorgullece de haber dado al mundo. Mezclando los recuerdos personales con el rigor analítico, revisita una historia que, desde el caso Dreyfus hasta después del dramático asalto a la redacción de Charlie Hebdo, se presenta como una decadencia de largo recorrido. De esta suerte, Sand, que en su juventud fue un gran admirador de figuras de talla universal como Sartre o Camus, se sorprende hoy día al ver cómo el intelectual parisino se encarna en las personalidades mediáticas de un Michel Houellebecq, un Eric Zemmour, un Alain Finkielkraut... Al final de una obra dura y sin concesiones, el autor se interroga en particular por la judeofobia e islamofobia de las «elites» que dominan la escena francesa, que contempla con mirada irónica y desengañada.
Durante sus estudios en París y a lo largo de toda su vida, Shlomo Sand ha frecuentado a los «grandes pensadores franceses», cuyo milieu –el mundo intelectual de París y sus secretos– conoce íntimamente. Con todo este bagaje, el autor examina y desbroza parte de los mitos relacionados con la figura del «intelectual» que Francia se enorgullece de haber dado al mundo. Mezclando los recuerdos personales con el rigor analítico, revisita una historia que, desde el caso Dreyfus hasta después del dramático asalto a la redacción de Charlie Hebdo, se presenta como una decadencia de largo recorrido. De esta suerte, Sand, que en su juventud fue un gran admirador de figuras de talla universal como Sartre o Camus, se sorprende hoy día al ver cómo el intelectual parisino se encarna en las personalidades mediáticas de un Michel Houellebecq, un Eric Zemmour, un Alain Finkielkraut... Al final de una obra dura y sin concesiones, el autor se interroga en particular por la judeofobia e islamofobia de las «elites» que dominan la escena francesa, que contempla con mirada irónica y desengañada.
248 pages, Paperback
Published September 4, 2017
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325 people want to read
About the author
Shlomo Sand
36 books259 followersShlomo Sand is professor of history at Tel Aviv University and author of the controversial book The Invention of the Jewish People (Verso Books, 2009). His main areas of teaching are nationalism, film as history and French intellectual history.
Sand was born to Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. His parents had Communist and anti-imperialist views and refused to receive compensations from Germany for their suffering during the Second World War. Sand spent his early years in a displaced persons camp, and moved with the family to Jaffa in 1948. He was expelled from high school at the age of sixteen, and only completed his bagrut following his military service. He eventually left the Union of Israeli Communist Youth (Banki) and joined the more radical, and anti-Zionist, Matzpen in 1968. Sand resigned from Matzpen in 1970 due to his disillusionment with the organisation.
He declined an offer by the Israeli Communist Party Rakah to be sent to do cinema studies in Poland, and in 1975 Sand graduated with a BA in History from Tel Aviv University. From 1975 to 1985, after winning a scholarship, he studied and later taught in Paris, receiving an MA in French History and a PhD for his thesis on "George Sorel and Marxism". Since 1982, Sand has taught at Tel Aviv University as well as at the University of California, Berkeley and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.
Sand was born to Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. His parents had Communist and anti-imperialist views and refused to receive compensations from Germany for their suffering during the Second World War. Sand spent his early years in a displaced persons camp, and moved with the family to Jaffa in 1948. He was expelled from high school at the age of sixteen, and only completed his bagrut following his military service. He eventually left the Union of Israeli Communist Youth (Banki) and joined the more radical, and anti-Zionist, Matzpen in 1968. Sand resigned from Matzpen in 1970 due to his disillusionment with the organisation.
He declined an offer by the Israeli Communist Party Rakah to be sent to do cinema studies in Poland, and in 1975 Sand graduated with a BA in History from Tel Aviv University. From 1975 to 1985, after winning a scholarship, he studied and later taught in Paris, receiving an MA in French History and a PhD for his thesis on "George Sorel and Marxism". Since 1982, Sand has taught at Tel Aviv University as well as at the University of California, Berkeley and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 21, 2022
Half way through I was pretty sure this book was a contender for four stars.
The five first chapters are mostly very good. Sand is a historian. His strength lies in his knowledge of French history and he manage to tie the book nicely together most of the time.
Then we get to the chapter about Houellebecq. I feel like Sands understanding and reading of soumission is very weak. It shows signs of heavily bias and haste. I don't think that Sand from the beginning originally planned to write a Houellebecq chapter.
Then the Charlie Hebdo massacre happened on the same day that Houellebecq was on the front of the magazine because of Soumission so its sensical to write about the guy but the chapter doesn't really hold up. He tries to make a analysis of Submission and he is not very good at it.
The last chapter is OK. It's definitely the second weakest chapter but it's readable. Maybe he should have just kept the length down to five chapters and skipped on the last two.
The five first chapters are mostly very good. Sand is a historian. His strength lies in his knowledge of French history and he manage to tie the book nicely together most of the time.
Then we get to the chapter about Houellebecq. I feel like Sands understanding and reading of soumission is very weak. It shows signs of heavily bias and haste. I don't think that Sand from the beginning originally planned to write a Houellebecq chapter.
Then the Charlie Hebdo massacre happened on the same day that Houellebecq was on the front of the magazine because of Soumission so its sensical to write about the guy but the chapter doesn't really hold up. He tries to make a analysis of Submission and he is not very good at it.
The last chapter is OK. It's definitely the second weakest chapter but it's readable. Maybe he should have just kept the length down to five chapters and skipped on the last two.
August 13, 2021
fine. bit of a pub rant at times, not always in a bad way. perry anderson's surveys on france probably have a bit more insight but lack the moral indignation you get here
April 6, 2019
I have read the scorchingly urgent Part Two on Islamophobia: Houellebecq's Submission, Charlie Hebdo and others. I was not Charlie either, and I am puzzling (freaking out) at the foothold Islamophobia has in the shape for example of the Houellebecq novel. I recommend his discussion.
I'll have to read him on the moral failings of War-era intellectuals.
I'll have to read him on the moral failings of War-era intellectuals.
June 23, 2021
The first part was very interesting and intense, maybe too much ! Each part could have been a whole book. I prefered the second part, which shows how mediocre the new french intellectual figures are. I really liked the honesty of the author.
December 1, 2025
Sand traces the history of the term "intellectual," which originated with Saint-Simon but really solidified with the class that came to publicly oppose Dreyfus' incarceration, led, of course, by Zola (with the infamous "J'Accuse...!"). This makes the "inversion" that ends the book, Houellebecq cynically mobilizing the supposed anti-Semitism of French Muslims in order to peddle Islamophobia (in his 2015 novel Submission, where the sheer strength of his misogyny allows him to semi-satirically revel in a flat caricature of conservative Islam) all the more ironic, allowing Sand to chart the decline of the figure of the French (really, Parisian: Sand helpfully clarifies, in a sort of geo-philosophizing, that French intellectual life truly only revolves around Paris) intellectual from a genuine mobilization against anti-Semitism, to the tepid, even collaborationist, response of the existentialist café crowd (Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus) to the reality of Vichy during WWII, alongside Camus' waffling approach to Algerian independence, through to the new Islamophobia of Houellebecq, Finkielkraut, Zemmour, and Lévy (the latter of which supports the Afghani mujahideen in their fight against "Communism," only to turn around and support the Iraq War once his attention and labelling of the "big bad" has turned to Islam). (He also notes, in passing, the inflation of the figure of the Parisian intellectual, via a discussion of Althusser's treatment following his strangling of his wife: instead of needing to prove "insanity" at trial, he received preferential treatment and was psychiatrically institutionalized straightaways, which I think is fair to hash out—Althusser even notes that he begrudges the fact he was not allowed to provide evidence of such.) Between, we receive treatments of Voltaire, Rousseau, Comte, de Tocqueville, Benda, Nizan, Aron, Kautsky, Sorel, Lafargue, Gramsci, and Bourdieu - speaking of which, this text is vaguely reminiscent of the latter's Homo Academicus, in subject matter if not in methodology (which Sand discusses). Sand also very helpfully notes that Lanzmann's 1985 documentary Shoah appears just three years after the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, and that it helps to redirect attention away from Israeli crimes. Nevertheless, I still have squabbles with Sand's politics, including his approach to Stalinism (though I am, of course, no apologist), and his insistence on Marx's anti-Semitism (Marx is Jewish, and discusses their relation to capital as an explanation for their scapegoating), but I do in general appreciate his approach here, including his firm stance against French Islamophobia.
August 22, 2020
A fascinating read, especially the scathing critique of the final two chapters
August 31, 2018
Informative,pithy,savvy,humorous and thought-provoking
A must-read for anyone who wish to know the real images of intellectuals instead of their self-adulation
A must-read for anyone who wish to know the real images of intellectuals instead of their self-adulation
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February 8, 2017https://youtu.be/u9Dg-g7t2l4
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Sound of Silence Disturbed
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July 2, 2019
This book was a Best of the Best for the month of July, 2019, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet. You can find me at http://forums.delphiforums.com/stevo1, on my Stevo's Novel Ideas Amazon Influencer page (https://www.amazon.com/shop/stevo4747) or search for me on Google for many more reviews and recommendations.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews