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banal expression of authority; it meant casting into doubt the sum–
mit , the reference point, the very "patron of the French language," to
use Charles Peguy's terms . Since the beginning of the century, Lan–
son had accumulated power, first as the author of a scholastic
manual that revolutionized the methods , techniques, and subjects of
all high school courses in French literature; then as the founder of an
historical approach to literary research, and finally as an influential
critic. He had addressed all sorts of audiences, from the most erudite
to the most popular, mastering all forms of expression, from jour–
nalism to scholarship via biography and hermeneutics. Lanson had
readers everywhere. Sartre's own professors had been formed by
him ; the books on French literature Sartre studied had been written
by him . Lanson had abolished the teaching of rhetoric from all
university and high school programs in favor of literary history. He
had dealt the death blow to the tradition of subjective analysis. He
had scrapped the authors of the seventeenth century, such as La
Bruyere and Fenelon, in favor of those of the Enlightenment, such
as Voltaire and Diderot. Indeed, what Sartre attacks, through Lan–
son, is that very tradition to which he will remain one of the most
talented , as well as the most violently rebellious , heirs. Let's not
forget this image of Sartre mocking Lanson in front of the prime
minister: it is the Republic of Professors against the R epublic of Let–
ters , the old guard witnessing the jokes of the new generation. This
image of a provoking, disrespectful, subversive Sartre recurs again
and again, like a leitmotif, throughout his life. Nor should we forget
that behind the pedagogical attributes Sartre ridiculed in his
caricature of Lanson, Charles Schweitzer's haughty profile loomed.
But what truth was behind that clowning facade? What quest
underlay the cruelty of that short, hirsute, clumsy man? What
depths lay within that broad-backed swaggerer, who had developed
formidable muscles in the school gym so he could box and wrestle,
the most brutal and aggressive sports?12 What else hid behind his
reputation, his prestige, and a renown that others must have,
perhaps secretly, envied him? Was it his mythic novel that people
spoke of with shining eyes?13 Was it that superb, strong voice of his,
or his improvisational talents at the piano-which he taught in the
music room-the combined talents of the born musician , actor,
12. Interview with Armand Berard , April 16 , 1983.
13. Interview with J ean Baillou, June 9, 1982.
