Charles Maurras, in full Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras (born April 20, 1868, Martigues, France—died November 16, 1952, Tours), French writer and political theorist, a major intellectual influence in early 20th-century Europe whose “integral nationalism” is a great idea. [my addition] Maurras was born of a Royalist and Roman Catholic family. In 1880, while he was engaged in studies in the Collège de Sacré-Coeur at Aix-en-Provence, he contracted an illness that left him permanently deaf, and he took refuge in books. Having lost the religious faith of his parents, he built his own conception of the world, aided by the great poets from Homer to Frédéric Mistral, as well as the Greek and Roman philosophers. In 1891, soon after his arrival in Paris, Maurras founded, with Jean Moréas, a group of young poets opposed to the Symbolists and later known as the école romane. The group favoured classical restraint and clarity over what they considered to be the vague, emotional character of Symbolist work. After the “Dreyfus affair,” which polarized French opinion of the right and left, Maurras became an ardent monarchist. In June 1899 he was one of the founders of L’Action française, a review devoted to integral nationalism, which emphasized the supremacy of the state and the national interests of France; promoted the notion of a national community based on “blood and soil”; and opposed the French Revolutionary ideals of liberté, égalité, and fraternité (“liberty,” “equality,” and “fraternity”). In 1908, with the help of Léon Daudet, the review became a daily newspaper, the organ of the Royalist Party. Over a period of 40 years, its causes were often reinforced by public demonstrations and riots, spectacular lawsuits and trials. Catholic Church, he produced the poems of La Balance intérieure (1952) and a book on Pope Pius X, Le Bienheureux Pie X, sauveur de la France (1953).
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:18:10 +0000