IDEOLOGICAL MISTAKES OF LOUIS FERDINAND CÉLINE AND EMIL CIORAN
IDEOLOGICAL MISTAKES OF LOUIS FERDINAND CÉLINE AND EMIL CIORAN

Summary/Abstract: 2011 was a year of reference for both Emil Cioran and Louis Ferdinand Céline. We celebrated the centenary of the Romanian philosopher who chose to exile himself in Paris and also the 50-year anniversary of Céline’s death. In fact, we witnessed controversial issues in France linked to the question of whether we should include the 50th anniversary of the death of Céline among the official commemorations of 2011. While Cioran has been forgiven for having supported the Romanian far right (the Iron Guard), some French intellectuals cannot forgive Céline for his collaboration with Nazi Germany during the Second World War. In fact, the anti-Semitic rage of both Cioran and Céline cannot be ignored. Cioran and Céline gave up defending their political ideas after the defeat of Germany. But, while Cioran produced a new text on Jews in 1956, this time extremely laudatory, the extermination of Jews left Céline cold, and it is perhaps this aspect that makes him rather unique among the writers of the interwar period who were influenced by Nazi philosophy

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