André Gide and the Discourses of Power; A New Approach to the Process of Disillusionment with Communism in Return from the U.S.S.R

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student of French Studies, Department of European Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor of French Studies, Department of European Studies, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

After the victory of the October Revolution in 1917 and the establishment of the communist regime in the Soviet Union, this land became the utopia of many intellectuals. Among them André Gide, who was invited by the Union of Soviet Writers in 1936 to visit the land of his dreams. But what he saw and wrote in his return entitled Return from the U.S.S.R (1936) and Afterthoughts on the U.S.S.R. (1937) expressed his regret and despair for the realization of the great human aspirations of the twentieth century. This apparent disillusionment in Gide's text, however, is not simply achieved, but at the same time conveys the effects and factors that, according to Michel Foucault, shape the discourse of power in a particular period and influence the individual and collective choices of the author. In this article, we try to figure out the interaction of central discourses of power and their relation to the possibility of communism disillusionment by Gide, using the historical research methodology and relying on new historicism theories.

Keywords

Main Subjects


References
Adereth, Maxwell. “The French Communist Party: A Critical History (1920-1984), from Comintern to" The Colours of France”. Manchester University Press, 1984.
Albas, Anton. “Gide's Bent: Sexuality, Politics, Writing. coll.«Ideologies of Desire»” (2000): 549-552.
Aminpour, Hassan, and Abolfazl Ramezani. "New Historicism: Concepts and Solutions". The First National Conference on Fundamental Research in Language and Literature Studies (2018), 1-22.
Barry, Peter. "An introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory." Beginning Theory (1995).
Bennett, Andrew, and Nicholas Royle. An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory. Routledge, 2016.
Brannigan, John. New Historicism and Cultural Materialism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
Bressler, Charles E. "Cultural Poeticsاطلاعات  or New Historicism." Literary Criticism: an Introduction to Theory and Practice, 1994, 181-195.
Cahm, Eric. L'affaire Dreyfus: Histoire, Politique et Société. Librairie Générale Française, 1994.
Canovas, Frédéric. "André Gide's Politics: Rebellion and Ambivalence." (2004): 121-128.
Chadourne, Jacqueline M. André Gide et l'Afrique: le rôle de l'Afrique dans la vie et l'oeuvre de l'écrivain. Paris : Nizet, 1968.
Christophe, Charle. "Naissance des «intellectuels»: 1880-1900." Paris, Minuit, 1990.
Martin, Claude, and André Gide. André Gide par lui même. Vol. 62. Éditions du seuil, 1963.
Clemenceau, Georges. « À la dérive », L’Aurore, 23 janvier 1898, republié dans Georges Clemenceau : (2001).
Cœuré, Sophie. "Introduction-Retour sur le «retour d’URSS», dans les coulisses d’un mythe politique et littéraire." (2012): 9-33.
Cogez, Gérard. Les écrivains voyageurs au XXe siècle. Vol. 520. Seuil, 2004.
Cordle, Thomas. André Gide. Vol. 86. Macmillan Reference USA, 1993.
Drake, David. French Intellectuals and Politics from the Dreyfus Affair to the Occupation. Springer, 2005.
Farzaneh Dehkordi, Jalal, and Ramin Farhadi. “Reconsideration of the Intellectual Resistance and Degeneracy of the Idealism in Howard Brenton’s Bloody Poetry”. Research in Contemporary World Literature [Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji], vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring and Summer 2015): 145-162.
Fayet, Aurélien, and Michelle Fayet. L'histoire de France: des Origines à Nos Jours. Editions Eyrolles, 2009.
Flower, John Ernest. Literature and the Left in France. Springer, 1983.
Gide, André. “Amyntas”. Vol. 2581. Gallimard : 1994.
---. “Les Cahiers de la Petite Dame, 3.”, (1975): 313-14.
---. “Journal: 192650, Vol. 2. Edited by E. Marty and M. Sagaert. (1997).
---. “Retour de l’URSS suivi de Retouches à mon retour de l’U.R.R.S.” 11 (1950).
---. “Return from the USSR”. Translated by Jalal Ale Ahmad. Amir Kabir Publication, 1972.
Gordon, Daniel. “In Search of Limits: Raymond Aron on ‘Secular Religion’and Communism.” Journal of Classical Sociology, vol. 11, no. 2 (2011): 139-154.
Greenblatt, J. S. “Learning to Curse Essays in Early Modern Culture Routledge.” (1990).
Greenblatt, Stephen. Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England. No. 4. Univ of California Press, 1988.
Gubińska, Maria. "Retour de l'URSS d'André Gide." Synergies Pologne 15 (2018).
Guérard, Albert Joseph. André Gide. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969.
Javaheri, Bahareh. “A Reflection of Andre Gide's Private Experiences on His Works”. Research in Contemporary World Literature [Pazhuhesh-e Zabanha-ye Khareji], vol. 13, no. 1 (Summer 2008): 31-46.
Hamilton, Paul. Historicism. Routledge, 2004.
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt. "Foucault and the new historicism." American Literary History, vol. 3, no. 2 (1991): 360-375.
Herbart, Pierre. ... En URSS, 1936. Gallimard, 1937.
Hickling, Matt. "New Historicism." Brock Education: A Journal of Educational Research and Practice, vol. 27, no. 2 (2018): 53-57.
Hollander, Paul. “Gide and Soviet Communism”. André Gide's Politics: Rebellion and Ambivalence. Edited by Tom Conner. Palgrave, 2000.
Kamalu, Ikenna, and Ayo Osisanwo. "Discourse analysis." Issues in the study of language and literature: Theory & practice. Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited (2015): 189-191.
Kharitonova, Natalia Yu. "ANDRÉ GIDE’S RETOUR DE L’URSS. AND ITS PUBLICATION HISTORY: A VIEW FROM THE KREMLIN." STUDIA LITTERARUM: 185.
Lepape, Pierre. André Gide le Messager: Biographie. Seuil, 1997.
Marshall, W. J. “André Gide and the USSR: a Reappraisal”. Australian Journal of French Studies (1983): 20, 37.
Masson, Pierre, and Pierre Masson. André Gide: voyage et écriture. Presses universitaires de Lyon, 1983.
Nojoumian, Amir Ali, "History, Language and Narration", Journal of Humanities, vol. 52 (2006): 305-318
Parenteau, Ian. "Histoire du Parti communiste français d’Yves Santamaria, Paris, Éditions La Découverte, Paris, 1999, 128 p." Politique et Sociétés, vol. 20, no. 1 (2001): 164-167.
Racine, Nicole. Les écrivains Communistes en France: 1920-1936. Diss. Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 1963.
Reid, Victoria. André Gide and Curiosity. Brill, 2009.
Struve, Gleb. 25 Years of Soviet Russian Literature (1918-1943). Routledge, 2021.
Studer, Brigitte. "Le voyage en URSS et son «Retour»." Le Mouvement Social, vol.4 (2003): 3-8.
Talks, Florence Louisa. "ANDRE GIDE'S COMPANIONS ON HIS JOURNEY TO THE SOVIET UNION IN 1936: JACQUES SCHIFFRIN, EUGENE DABIT, LOUIS GUILLOUX, JEF LAST AND PIERRE HERBART (FRANCE)." (1990): 1321-1321.
Viollis, Andrée. Russie d'Aujourd'hui. 3 (March 1933), p.2 : (1933).
Walker, David H. André Gide. Routledge, 2017.
Winock, Michel. "L'écrivain en tant qu'intellectuel." Mil neuf cent. Revue d'Histoire Intellectuelle, vol. 21, no.1 (2003): 113-125.
Winock, Michel. Le Siècle des Intellectuels-Prix Médicis Essai 1997. Média Diffusion, 2016.