Robert Poulet
Robert Poulet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 September 1893 |
| Died | 6 October 1989 (aged 96) Marly-le-Roi, France |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Occupation(s) | journalist, literary critic, writer |
Robert Poulet (4 September 1893 – 6 October 1989) was a Belgian writer, literary critic and journalist. Politically he was a Maurras-inspired integral nationalist who became associated with a collaborationist newspaper during the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany.
Literature
[edit]Educated at the Faculté des Mines in his hometown, Poulet served in the First World War and before taking odd jobs in Belgium and France.[1] He began writing for several literary reviews in the 1920s and published his first novel, the surrealist Handji, in 1931.[2] He became a part of the 'Groupe du Lundi' that built up around Franz Hellens, which attacked the regional novels prevalent in France then and endorsed magic realism instead.[3] As a literary critic, he became noted for rejecting female authors, dismissing them as midinettes en diable.[4]
Politics
[edit]Poulet was involved in politics during the early 1930s when he was a member of the corporatist study group Réaction.[5] Although not altogether enamoured of Nazism he became the 'political director' of Le Nouveau Journal, a collaborationist paper launched by Paul Colin in October 1940.[5] A strong supporter of Belgian independence, he was heavily influenced by Charles Maurras and the Action Française and by 1941, he agreed with Raymond de Becker that a corporatist, authoritarian party of state should be created. His idea was soon abandoned however when the Nazis decide to instead back Léon Degrelle and Rexism, a philosophy to which Poulet was opposed.[6]
Despite all of this Poulet never opposed the Nazis and frequently wrote in support of them during his time at Le Nouveau Journal.[7] He also praised them in their war against the Soviet Union due to his own strict anti-communism.[8] He was sentenced to death in October 1945 for collaboration, after serving six years in prison, ostensibly on 'death row,' he was released and allowed to return to France.[9]
Later years
[edit]Following his move to France, he published several autobiographical novels in which he sought to justify his war-time collaboration as merely trying to safeguard the monarchy and Belgian independence. He would also act as a reader at Éditions Denoël and Plon and write for the far right journal Rivarol, the Catholic paper Présent and Ecrits de Paris, amongst other publications.[10] He was a close friend and supporter of Robert Faurisson and joined him in advocating Holocaust denial.[11] Despite Poulet's controversial opinions, famed The Adventures of Tintin cartoonist Hergé, who worked for Poulet during the war, maintained a lifelong friendship with Poulet until Hergé died in 1983.[11] Poulet's autobiography, Ce n'est pas un vie, appeared in 1976. He died in 1989.
References
[edit]- ^ Adèle King, Rereading Camara Laye, 2002, p. 132
- ^ King, Rereading Camara Laye, p. 133
- ^ King, Rereading Camara Laye, p. 134
- ^ Toril Moi, Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman, 1994, pp. 78–9
- ^ a b Littlejohn, David (1972). The Patriotic Traitors: A History of Collaboration in German-occupied Europe, 1940-45. Heinemann. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-434-42725-3.
- ^ King, Rereading Camara Laye, p. 135
- ^ King, Rereading Camara Laye, p. 137
- ^ Lindsay Waters & Wlad Godzich, Reading de Man Reading, 1989, p. 16
- ^ King, Rereading Camara Laye, pp. 137–8
- ^ King, Rereading Camara Laye, p. 138
- ^ a b Mark McKinney, History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels, p. 38
Bibliography
[edit]- King, Adele (2002). Rereading Camara Laye. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-2752-1.
