Manifestos

Who’s ready to rumble?

Henri Barbusse

1873-1935

Barbusse

• French novelist• several novels, including L’enfer (1908), Le couteau entre

mes dents (1921), and a biography of Stalin (1936)• English mother, French father• small-town upbringing, to Paris age 16, then to war• increasingly disenchanted, then pacifist• then Communist for remainder of his life• fights for 17 months in the war 1914-15• invalided out of service for asthma,

dysentery, wounds• writes Le Feu at his desk job 1916

Le Feu (Under Fire)

• published in Dec. 1916• wins Prix Goncourt• trans. into English and

published June 1917• naturalism• realism• journal – documentary

reportage• what claims does this

make? what promises?

Structure

• opens with a broad vision• closes with a broad vision• anecdotes, episodes• what does this do to the events, our experience of them?

• first-hand narrative• again, what contracts, promises, etc. does this make?• p. 155 – swearwords • issue of translation, language, truth, objectivity

• anything else?

Paradigm Shift

• Let’s begin with the title: Le feu – what does that mean?• pp. 6-7• “après moi, le déluge” (Louis XV or Madame de

Pompadour)• fire, smoke, flood, fire, water, ooze, apocalypse

The Bible

The Bible

The Bible

The Bible

Thursday

• Second half Le Feu• so you will want to have read it