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writes not only as an individual, but also as one opposed to the mass
of his countrymen. When he says 'I,' he means specifically the 'not–
they,' the not-as-other-men. Aragon as an individual spoke in his war–
time poems for all patriotic Frenchmen: when he said 'I,' he also meant
'we'."
The poets of the Resistance, as the spokesmen of European freedom,
were indeed, fleetingly, in a position that permitted them the employ–
ment of such a "we." But this is precisely where Aragon is found most
wanting. Aragon substitutes a two-faced patriotism for the socialist and
internationalist aspirations associated with the Resistance. Aragon's "we"
is simply the debased "we" of a renegade avant-gardist, pompously pre–
suming on the existence of a nationalist common ground, full of Stalinist
longings to "belong."
Louis Aragon is a poet not without talent and certainly not without
interest. Some of his poems-"The Unoccupied Zone" for example–
are good, but only when their scope is limited: within narrow confines
his imagination can work out its theme in uncorrupted simplicity. Aragon
has energy and fluency but he lacks honesty and character.
It
must be added at this point that although Aragon's work is to
be evaluated in terms of poetry alone, the defects of that work are closely
connected with the defects of his character and with the ominous sig–
nificance of his present role in France as the literary leader of the politi–
cal "avant-garde."
It
is important to make clear just what sort of person
he is. He is, let us not forget, the same man who called for the execution
of Andre Gide-(whom Cowley quotes in praise of Aragon, midly ob–
serving at the same time that Aragon attacked Gide " ... unjustly, I
think. ...") Gide, of course, stands in no direct personal danger of the
realization of Aragon's demand. What is frightening in this, however, is
Aragon's impudence in calling for a Moscow trial in Paris. Such "pa–
triotic" fervor is more of a threat to the critical intelligence now than it
was to the German occupation then.
One is amazed that the people who edited this book could discover
in a versifying Vishinsky the "Poet of the Resistance."
MARTIN GREENBERG
AN INTERNATIONAl EPISODE
A
LTHOUGH THE modern American novel has been popular in Fra.nce
for some years, its vogue has grown enormously since the war.
Most of Faulkner has been translated, together with a good deal of
I
Hemingway, Caldwell, Steinbeck and smaller portions of Farrell, Saro-
yan and Katherine Anne Porter. In addition, Gide, Malraux, Sartre
and many other French critics have commented on the Americans with -
great ingenuity and enthusiasm.
