Robert Poulet
Robert Poulet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 September 1893 |
| Died | 6 October 1989 (aged 96) |
| Nationality |  Belgium |
| 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
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 a number of 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 at the time and instead endorsed magic realism.[3] As a literary critic he became noted for his rejection of female authors, dismissing them as midinettes en diable.[4]
Politics
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 was in agreement 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 but, after serving six years imprisonment, ostensibly on 'death row', he was released and allowed to return to France.[9]
Later years
Following his move to France he published a number of 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, as well as writing 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 his controversial opinions Poulet maintained a life-long friendship with the famed cartoonist Hergé, who had worked for Poulet during the war, until the Tintin creator's death in 1983.[11] Poulet's autobiography, Ce n'est pas un vie, appeared in 1976.
References
- ^ 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 David Littlejohn, The Patriotic Traitors, London: Heinemann, 1972, p. 152
- ^ 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