Critique de CHOICE

In this study of far-Right intellectuals in 1930s France, Sanos (Texas A & M Univ.-Corpus Christi) argues that the "Young New Right"--Brasillach, Celine, Rebatet, and others--perceived France as hopelessly decadent and besieged by threatening Others--most notably, the Jews. To escape this state of "abjection," fascist intellectuals embraced "aesthetics as politics," mobilizing a normative vision of aggressive masculinity to regenerate society and defend the boundaries of the self against threats of corruption and penetration. Sanos persuasively argues that the boundaries between avowed fascists and allegedly moderate conservatives were more porous, and the influence of the far Right on interwar French culture far more substantial, than usually acknowledged. She also contends that gender and race were conflated in French fascist demonology with the Jew, and especially archvillain Leon Blum, presented as sexually ambiguous and seductive. The book is heavy on theory, particularly Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection, and while the immediate historical context is well developed, contributing factors such as the brutalizing hecatomb of WW I and the threat of the 1920s "new woman" are suggested, but not explored. Nevertheless, Sanos has provided a vital resource for the intellectual history of interwar France. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty. D. A. Harvey New College of Florida