The Shameful Peace : How French Artists & Intellectuals Survived the Nazi Occupation / Frederic Spotts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spotts, Frederic, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

War and civilization--History--20th century--France--Art and the war.

War and civilization.

World War, 1939-1945--Literature and the war.

World War, 1939-1945.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (304 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2008]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The German occupation of France from 1940 to 1945 presented wrenching challenges for the nation's artists and intellectuals. Some were able to flee the country; those who remained-including Gide and Céline, Picasso and Matisse, Cortot and Messiaen, and Cocteau and Gabin-responded in various ways. This fascinating book is the first to provide a full account of how France's artistic leaders coped under the crushing German presence. Some became heroes, others villains; most were simply survivors.Filled with anecdotes about the artists, composers, writers, filmmakers, and actors who lived through the years of occupation, the book illuminates the disconcerting experience of life and work within a cultural prison. Frederic Spotts uncovers Hitler's plan to pacify the French through an active cultural life, and examines the unexpected vibrancy of opera, ballet, painting, theater, and film in both the Occupied and Vichy Zones. In view of the longer-term goal to supplant French with German culture, Spotts offers moving insight into the predicament of French artists as they fought to preserve their country's cultural and national identity.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

1. The Judgement of Paris

2. Good-bye to All That

3. Oh, What a Lovely War!

4. 'I Get a Kick out of You'

5. Bonjour Tristesse

6. Songs without Words

7. Artful Dodgers

8. Enigma Variations

9. Faiblesse Oblige

10. Human, All Too Human

Sources

Index

Acknowledgements

Photograph Acknowledgements

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

0-300-14237-4

OCLC:

1024014265