Literarisches Feld und politische Krise : Mobilisierungen französischer Schriftsteller im Mai 68 und Verzeitlichungslogiken des Feldes
Résumé
L'article entend souligner l'apport d'une sociologie des crises politiques sur la théorie des champs, et notamment sur la question des modes de temporalisation du champ littéraire. A cette fin, il prend pour objet le cas spécifique des mobilisations collectives des écrivains durant la crise de mai-juin 1968 en France. Certes, le champ littéraire est doté d'une histoire en perpétuel devenir ; certes ses pôles n'obéissent pas aux mêmes temporalités, et varient de la quasi-immobilité propre au pôle académique à la course à l'innovation propre au pôle de l'avant-garde. Il reste que le champ, structure et histoire incorporées et institutionnalisées, est dans son ensemble doté d'une assez forte inertie. L'article montre que la rencontre entre le champ littéraire et une crise politique peut, pourtant, fragiliser cette inertie et reconfigurer des hiérarchies de légitimités et de positions pourtant solidement établies. C'est le cas en Mai 68, où le mouvement étudiant produit de nouvelles significations révolutionnaires à partir des symboliques lettrées et artistes. Cette interpénétration des catégories ordinaires du monde des lettres et du mouvement révolutionnaire est à l'origine d'un contexte de sens qui pousse les écrivains à se mobiliser. Pour comprendre les ressorts des prises de position des écrivains pendant le moment critique, l'article propose alors le modèle d'une socio-histoire du temps court, qui place au cœur de l'analyse les propriétés spécifiques des situations de crise : vitesse des événements, fluidité politique, incertitude concernant le sens de ce qui se passe et sur la portée des mobilisations. Il montre qu'en raison de ces propriétés les prises de position des écrivains pendant la crise ne sont pas seulement le produit de l'histoire du champ littéraire, c'est-à-dire des positions et des dispositions acquises par les écrivains avant la crise, mais aussi de logiques de situation très subtiles, qui renversent momentanément les hiérarchies qui prévalaient entre les groupes littéraires. Le texte décrit alors, à partir d'exemples concrets, comment des groupes dominants de l'avant-garde se trouvent momentanément déclassés et comment d'autres groupes, plus marginaux ou en voie de délégitimation, se trouvent, à l'inverse, relégitimés par la crise. Il pose enfin la question de la durée de cette inversion et la question de la résistance du champ au changement.
This article emphasizes how the theory of the political crisis goes into thoroughly the theory of fields, in particular into one of its main issues : how the literary field changes. To throw light on this point, the article studies the case of the collective mobilizations of the writers which take place during the May'68 political crisis in France. It is known that the history of the literary field is a never ending history ; it is known, also, that it is true concerning the avant-garde, which always seeks after aesthetic innovations, more than it is concerning the academic pole, which reproduces the literary forms coming from the past. Nevertheless, the structure and the history of the literary field are written in minds, bodies and institutions. Therefore, the field is, on the whole, quite inert and, usually, changes very slowly. The article shows that a political crisis is able to fragilize this inertia and to reconfigure suddenly the hierachies of legitimacy and domination we thought established. It is the case in may 1968 in France : the student movement uses symbols coming from the literary and the artistic worlds to frame the meaning of the revolutionary situation, and this use creates, as never before, a context of significations which provides to the french authors reasons to mobilize themselves. We suggest that the model of a “sociological history of the short time” is relevant to understand these reasons and the forms they take. Indeed, such a model enlightens on the specific properties of the political crisis: the speed of the events, the political “fluidity”, the incertainty concerning what is happening and what the mobilizations are supposed to lead up to. We show that, on account of all these properties, the political stands of the mobilized writers cannot be understood only by relating them to the past of the field, it means to the positions in the field, the habitus and the trajectories of the authors before the crisis, but also by relating them to the subtle logics of situation which suddenly set up differently this heritage of the past. The article gives examples of impacts of the crisis on the hierarchies of legitimacy in the field: some groups, who dominated the avant-garde, suddenly face a delegitimation, while other groups, which were marginal or declining before the crisis, gain a new legitimacy. Finally, the article raises the question of how long this inversion
This article emphasizes how the theory of the political crisis goes into thoroughly the theory of fields, in particular into one of its main issues : how the literary field changes. To throw light on this point, the article studies the case of the collective mobilizations of the writers which take place during the May'68 political crisis in France. It is known that the history of the literary field is a never ending history ; it is known, also, that it is true concerning the avant-garde, which always seeks after aesthetic innovations, more than it is concerning the academic pole, which reproduces the literary forms coming from the past. Nevertheless, the structure and the history of the literary field are written in minds, bodies and institutions. Therefore, the field is, on the whole, quite inert and, usually, changes very slowly. The article shows that a political crisis is able to fragilize this inertia and to reconfigure suddenly the hierachies of legitimacy and domination we thought established. It is the case in may 1968 in France : the student movement uses symbols coming from the literary and the artistic worlds to frame the meaning of the revolutionary situation, and this use creates, as never before, a context of significations which provides to the french authors reasons to mobilize themselves. We suggest that the model of a “sociological history of the short time” is relevant to understand these reasons and the forms they take. Indeed, such a model enlightens on the specific properties of the political crisis: the speed of the events, the political “fluidity”, the incertainty concerning what is happening and what the mobilizations are supposed to lead up to. We show that, on account of all these properties, the political stands of the mobilized writers cannot be understood only by relating them to the past of the field, it means to the positions in the field, the habitus and the trajectories of the authors before the crisis, but also by relating them to the subtle logics of situation which suddenly set up differently this heritage of the past. The article gives examples of impacts of the crisis on the hierarchies of legitimacy in the field: some groups, who dominated the avant-garde, suddenly face a delegitimation, while other groups, which were marginal or declining before the crisis, gain a new legitimacy. Finally, the article raises the question of how long this inversion