Pierre Vidal-Naquet

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Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (Paris, July 23, 1930 – Nice, July 29, 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in 1969.

Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, but was also interested in contemporary history, particularly the Algerian War (1954-62), during which he opposed the systematic use of torture by the French Army, as well as Jewish history. Having participated with Michel Foucault and Jean-Marie Domenach in the founding of the Groupe d'information sur les prisons (GIP), one of the first French new social movements, he criticized historical revisionism. Vidal-Naquet, who never abandoned his fascination with Antiquity, was also a supporter of Middle East peace efforts.

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[edit] Biography

Vidal-Naquet's family belonged to the Sephardic Jewish community living in the Comtat Venaissin (Carpentras, Avignon), and he was raised in a Republican and laic environment. His father Lucien was a "Dreyfusard" lawyer, who quickly entered the Resistance in order to avoid exile. In June 1940, the family escaped to Marseille. Arrested by the Gestapo on May 15, 1944, Vidal-Naquet's father was deported, along with his wife, in June 1944. Sent to Auschwitz, they never came back. At 14 years old, Pierre Vidal-Naquet then hid in his grand-mother's house in the Drôme. There, he read a lot, including the Iliad, and came to know his cousin, the philosopher Jacques Brunschwig. He later learnt that the Nazis had made "his father dance", something he would never forget.

After his studies at the lycée Carnot in Paris, he specialized in the history of Ancient Greece, as well as in contemporary subjects such as the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) or the Holocaust. He read Marc Bloch's Strange Defeat, a book attempting to explain the causes of the defeat during the 1940 Battle of France, which is one of the origins of his vocation as a historian. He discovered surrealism (André Breton, René Char and also Antonin Artaud), and founded a review at 18 years old, along with Pierre Nora, Imprudence. The 1949 Rajk trial definitively took out his will to adhere to the French Communist Party (PCF).

Pierre Vidal-Naquet first taught history at Orléans's high school (1955), before going to Caen's university (1956-60) and then Lille (1961-62). Reading Dumézil and Lévi-Strauss, he would become a member of the "Paris School", composed at first of his friend Jean-Pierre Vernant (with whom he wrote several books), Nicole Loraux, Marcel Detienne and himself. Their work would renew the traditional vision of Ancient Greece.

He then worked at the CNRS (1962-64) and was named maître de conférences at Lyon's university (1964-66). He was then named professor at the Ecole pratique des hautes études, which became the EHESS.

A friend of Jean-Pierre Vernant, he wrote several books with him. However, although Vernant was a "comrade" of the PCF, Vidal-Naquet never took membership in any political party, with the exception of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), which he considered as a "simple discussion circle" [1].

Pierre Vidal-Naquet was married and the father of three children. He was also officer of the Légion d'honneur and, in Greece, commander of the Phenix Order. His death was announcedon the CLASSICS-L mailing list on July 29, 2006.

[edit] Activism

Pierre Vidal-Naquet defined himself as an "activist historian", and while pursuing his studies never ceased engaging in political struggles and taking part in political committees, etc. A member of the Comité Audin, along with Jérôme Lindon (editor of the Minuit publishing house), he was one of the best known opponents of the systematic use of torture during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62). Along with Jean-Paul Sartre and many others, he signed the Manifeste des 121, a call for civil disobedience against the Algerian war. Anti-colonialist, Vidal-Naquet was opposed to Guy Mollet's SFIO (French Section of the Second International) reformist party because of Mollet's support of the colonial wars.

He was also opposed to the Regime of the Colonels (1967-74) in Greece. He supported peace efforts in the Middle East as well as the Europalestine group. He thus declared: "I consider Sharon as a criminal" [2].

With Michel Foucault and Jean-Marie Domenach, he signed on February 8, 1971, the manifest on the Groupe d'informations sur les prisons ("Group of Information on Prison"), destined to give back discourse to the prisoners themselves, instead of talking in their name, as in the classic intellectual stance.

Vidal-Naquet was also one of the first scholars to deconstruct historical revisionist's thesis, most notably in his book The Assassins of Memory and Reflexions on Genocide. He was also opposed to the February 23, 2005 French law on colonialism voted by the conservative UMP, but which was finally repealed by president Jacques Chirac himself in the beginnings of 2006; Vidal-Naquet also criticized the 1990 Gayssot Act which prohibits revisionist discourse, claiming that the law shouldn't interfere in historical matters [3]. Vidal-Naquet's arguments against legislation relating to historical studies is not, however, a door opened to negationist speech. He once declared that he would rather name revisionists "negationists", and that he wouldn't discuss with them for "simple and scientific reasons. An astronomer doesn't debate with an astrologer. I wouldn't discuss with someone who supports the idea that the moon is made of Roquefort [a type of French cheese]... it is impossible." [4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Le Dernier des dreyfusards", article on Vidal-Naquet in Le Figaro, September 6, 2004
  2. ^ "Le Dernier des dreyfusards", article on Vidal-Naquet in Le Figaro, September 6, 2004
  3. ^ Interview with Vidal-Naquet on the Human Rights League (LDH) website (French)
  4. ^ "Au service du racisme", in L'Humanité, June 7, 1990

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Ancient Greece related

  • La Grèce ancienne - Du mythe à la raison, with Jean-Pierre Vernant, Le Seuil, coll. Points, 1990
  • La Grèce ancienne - L'espace et le temps, with Jean-Pierre Vernant, Le Seuil, coll. Points, 1991
  • La Grèce ancienne - Rites de passage et transgressions, with Jean-Pierre Vernant, Le Seuil, coll. Points, 1992
  • Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne, with Jean-Pierre Vernant, La Découverte, 2000
  • Les Grecs, les historiens et la démocratie, La Découverte, 2000
  • Œdipe et ses mythes, with Jean-Pierre Vernant, Complexe, 2001
  • La démocratie grecque vue d'ailleurs, Flammarion, coll. Champs, 2001
  • Le chasseur noir - Formes de pensées et formes de société dans le monde grec, Francois Maspero, Paris 1981
  • Le miroir brisé : tragédie athénienne et politique, Les Belles Lettres, 2002 (new edition)
  • Travail et esclavage en Grèce ancienne, with Jean-Pierre Vernant, Complexe, 2002
  • Le monde d'Homère, Perrin, 2002
  • Fragments sur l'art antique, Agnès Viénot, 2002
  • L'Atlantide. Petite histoire d'un mythe platonicien, Les Belles Lettres, 2005 ; ISBN 2-251-38071-X.

[edit] About Algeria

  • L'Affaire Audin, 1957-1978, éditions de Minuit, 1989 [nouvelle édition augmentée]
  • La torture dans la République : essai d'histoire et de politique contemporaine, 1954-1962, Minuit, 1998 (Torture: Cancer in Democracy, out of print)
  • Les crimes de l'armée française Algérie 1954-1962, La Découverte, 2001 [Préface inédite de l'auteur]
  • La Raison d'État. Textes publiés par le Comité Audin, La Découverte, 2002 (nouvelle édition du livre publié en 1962 aux éditions de Minuit)

[edit] On Jewish history and revisionism

  • The Assassins of Memory and Other Essays available here in English & French, articles on Robert Faurisson, Chomsky and revisionism (French: Les Assassins de la mémoire, Le Seuil, 1995)
  • Les Juifs, la mémoire et le présent, Le Seuil, 1995
  • La solution finale dans l'histoire, with Arno Mayer, La Découverte, 2002

[edit] Others

  • Le trait empoisonné, La Découverte, 1993 (about Jean Moulin)
  • Mémoires t.1 - La brisure et l'attente, 1930-1955, Le Seuil, 1998
  • Mémoires t.2 - Le trouble et la lumière, 1955-1998, Le Seuil, 1998

[edit] External links

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