Jean Jaurès was certainly among the most authoritative leaders of the Second International and putative father of French socialism. Dead assassinated on the eve of the Great War, he embodied the lacerating doubts of the socialists of his time suspended between loyalty to the internationalist cause and patriotism, however seeking a harmonious synthesis of identity. In his writings and speeches he repeatedly addressed the issue of the suffering of European societies in the face of the tragedy of the First World War and became an interpreter and political spokesman. An original reading that mitigates many of the myths that surround the outbreak of the Great War, it is also true that there were many signs that in previous years had brought to the idea of a real conflict and that had raised anxieties and questions in the most sensitive consciences. Not only. The often widespread belief of a compact consensus towards the nationalist war is diluted in the testimony of the existence of a pacifist population and little seduced by the culture of war. In the thought, in the political activity and in the pages of the great French tribune, the complexity of the relationship between peace and war destined to question the European consciences of the twentieth century takes shape.
Jean Jaurès è stato sicuramente tra i leader più autorevoli della Seconda Internazionale e padre putativo del socialismo francese. Morto assassinato alla vigilia della Grande Guerra egli incarnò i laceranti dubbi dei socialisti del suo tempo sospesi tra fedeltà alla causa internazionalista e patriottismo cercandone però una sintesi identitaria armonica. Nei suoi scritti e discorsi egli affrontò più volte il tema del travaglio delle società europee di fronte al dramma del primo conflitto mondiale e se ne fece intrpretete e portavoce politico. Una lettura originale che attenua molti dei miti che avvolgono lo scoppio della Grande Guerra, è anche vero che non poche furono le avvisaglie che negli anni precedenti avevano avvicinato all'idea di un conflitto reale e che avevano sollevato nelle coscienze più sensibili ansie e interrogativi. Non solo. La convinzione spesso diffusa di un consenso compatto verso la guerra nazionalista si stempera nella testimonianza dell'esistenza di una popolazione pacifista e poco sedotta dalla cultura della guerra. Nel pensiero, nell'attività politica e nelle pagine del grande tribuno francese prende così corpo quella complessità della relazione tra pace e guerra destinata a interrogare a più riprese le coscienze europee del Novecento.
Jean Jaurès, una coscienza lacerata: la pace, la nazione, la guerra
Francesca Canale Cama
2019
Abstract
Jean Jaurès was certainly among the most authoritative leaders of the Second International and putative father of French socialism. Dead assassinated on the eve of the Great War, he embodied the lacerating doubts of the socialists of his time suspended between loyalty to the internationalist cause and patriotism, however seeking a harmonious synthesis of identity. In his writings and speeches he repeatedly addressed the issue of the suffering of European societies in the face of the tragedy of the First World War and became an interpreter and political spokesman. An original reading that mitigates many of the myths that surround the outbreak of the Great War, it is also true that there were many signs that in previous years had brought to the idea of a real conflict and that had raised anxieties and questions in the most sensitive consciences. Not only. The often widespread belief of a compact consensus towards the nationalist war is diluted in the testimony of the existence of a pacifist population and little seduced by the culture of war. In the thought, in the political activity and in the pages of the great French tribune, the complexity of the relationship between peace and war destined to question the European consciences of the twentieth century takes shape.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
