Siegfried Kracauer et les grands débats intellectuels de son temps

Siegfried Kracauer and the main intellectual debates of his time

• Auteur / Autrice : Jacques Lohourou Digbeu-Badlor
• Direction : Gilbert Merlio
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Études germaniques
• Date : Soutenance en 1998
• Etablissement(s) : Bordeaux 3

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Critique et interprétation

Kracauer, Siegfried (1889-1966)

Résumé

Cette these se veut une contribution a la redecouverte de siegfried kracauer et donc a sa rehabilitation. Journaliste, sociologue, critique de cinema, philosophe et ecrivain, cet intellectuel polyvalent a marque son epoque. Paradoxalement, kracauer demeure le grand oublie de la renaissance culturelle de la republique de weimar. Kracauer a connu les grandes evolutions et les drames de son epoque : la premiere guerre mondiale, la revolution spartakiste, le foisonnement intellectuel d'apres-guerre, la quete de refuges tous azimuts propre aux hommes de cette epoque du chaos, la montee et le triomphe du nazisme, l'exil et enfin la seconde guerre mondiale. De sa position de journaliste, il avait naturellement le regard tourne vers le monde exterieur. Il sera ainsi subjugue par la revolution russe avant de s'en desolidariser bruyamment. Mais kracauer etait surtout un observateur de la societe weimarienne. Cela a forge son image de sociologue. La plupart des travaux disponibles sur kracauer traitent en effet de "kracauer sociologue". On le presente aussi comme journaliste ou critique de cinema. Cette presentation categorielle a une faiblesse : elle ne permet pas de degager une approche globale de l'homme et son oeuvre. Notre these a donc la pretention de combler cette lacune. Nous le faisons au travers des idees, c'est-a-dire des grands debats intellectuels auxquels kracauer a pris part. Nous avons etudie trois themes (la judeite, le marxisme et le nazisme) dans lesquels kracauer attise la polemique, repoussant constamment toute velleite de solidarite et d'esprit de groupe. Kracauer est un marginal demystificateur. Il rejette ainsi le "sionisme culturel" de martin buber et franz rosenzweig, condamne en bloc le materialisme dialectique de georg lukacs et le "dogmatisme" d'ernest bloch et de bertolt brecht en meme temps qu'il s'impose comme un pionnier de la prise de conscience du peril nazi. 11 se veut une conscience independante, sans attache, animee par la raison ; une conscience qui demasque tous les contenus de non-verites. Notre epoque qui s'essouffle, baissant chaque jour la garde devant de nouveaux genocides et autres purifications ethniques, a plus que jamais besoin d'eveilleurs de consciences. Kracauer peut etre un recours.

This thesis is meant to be a contribution to the rediscovery of siegfried kracauer and therefore to his rehabilitation. This versatile intellectual has influenced his time as a journalist, a sociologist, a cinema critic, a philosopher and a writer. Ironically, kracauer remains the great figure forgotten in his time of the cultural revival in the weimar republic. Siegfried kracauer knew the great changes and the tragedies of his time : the first world war, the spartacist revolution, the post-war intellectual profusion of ideas, the all-out search for refuge by the people living in those chaotic days, the rise and victory of nazism, the exile and finally the second world war. His social position as a journalist obviously enabled him to be outward-looking. He was then fascinated by the russian revolution before indiscreetly withdrawing his support from it. But kracauer was above all an observer of the weimar society, which forged his reputation as a sociologist. Actually, most works available about kracauer deal with "siegfried kracauer as a sociologist". But he is also known as a journalist or a film critic. There is one flaw in this divided presentation of the personality : it does not allow a global approach to the man and his work. This thesis consequently pretends to fill this gap. It can be done through the ideas, i. E. The great ideological debates in which kracauer joined. We study three themes (jewishness, marxism and nazism) about which kracauer stirred up controversy, while continually dismissing any solidarity and group inclination. Siegfried kracauer was an unconventional and demystifying figure. Thus he rejected martin buber and franz rosenzweig's "cultural zionism", he condemned georg lukacs's dialectic materialism in its entirety, as well as ernest bloch and bertolt brecht's dogmatism; but at the same time he emerged as a pioneer in the public awareness of the nazi peril. He tried to be an independent, unconstrained and reason-based voice, a conscience which unveils any absence of truth. In this day and age, which lacks ideas and which is lowering its guard in front of new genocides and all other ethnic cleansings, conscience stirrers are more than ever needed. Siegfried kracauer might be someone to turn to.