Alain Finkielkraut (, ; ; born 30 June 1949) is a French philosopher and public intellectual. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, many on the ideas of tradition and identitary nonviolence, including
Jewish identity
Jewish identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. Under a broader definition, Jewish identity does not depend on whether a person is regarded as a Jew by others, or by an exter ...
and
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, French
colonialism
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colony, colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose the ...
, the mission of the French education system in immigrant assimilation, and the
Yugoslav Wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
. He often appears on
French television
Television in France was introduced in 1931, when the first experimental broadcasts began. Colour television was introduced in October 1967 on La Deuxième Chaîne.
Digital terrestrial television
The digital terrestrial television platform w ...
.
He joined the Department of French Literature in the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
as an assistant professor in 1976, and from 1989 to 2014 he was professor of History of Ideas in the ''
École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
'' department of humanities and social sciences. He was elected member of the ''
Académie française'' (
Seat 21) on 10 April 2014.
As a thinker, Finkielkraut defines himself as being "at the same time
classical and
romantic". Finkielkraut deplores what he sees as the deterioration of Western tradition through
multiculturalism
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
and
relativism
Relativism is a family of philosophical views which deny claims to objectivity within a particular domain and assert that valuations in that domain are relative to the perspective of an observer or the context in which they are assessed. Ther ...
.
In 2010, he was involved in founding
JCall
JCall is a nonprofit advocacy group based in Europe to lobby the European parliament on foreign policy issues concerning the Middle East and Israel in particular. They say they are based along the lines of the America group J Street (advocacy gro ...
, a left-wing advocacy group based in Europe to lobby the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
on foreign policy issues concerning the Middle East and Israel in particular.
Life
Finkielkraut is the son of a
Polish Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
manufacturer of fine leather goods who survived the
Auschwitz concentration camp.
Work
Finkielkraut studied modern literature at the
École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud. Broadly speaking, his ideas may be described as being in the same vein as those of
Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics t ...
and
Hannah Arendt, a filiation he has repeatedly pointed out.
Finkielkraut first came to public attention when he and
Pascal Bruckner
Pascal Bruckner (; born 15 December 1948, in Paris) is a French writer, one of the "New Philosophers" who came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. Much of his work has been devoted to critiques of French society and culture.
Biography
Bruckner ...
co-authored a number of short but controversial essays intended to question the idea that a new emancipation was underway; these included ''The New Love Disorder'' (1977) (''Le Nouveau Désordre amoureux'') and ''At the Corner of the Street'' (1978) (''Au Coin de la rue''), as well as ''The Adventure'' (1979) (''L'aventure''). Finkielkraut then began publishing singly authored works on the public's betrayal of memory and our intransigence in the presence of events that, he argued, should move the public. This reflection led Finkielkraut to address
post-Holocaust Jewish identity in Europe (''The Imaginary Jew'') (1983) (''le Juif imaginaire''). Seeking to promote what he calls a duty of memory, Finkielkraut also published ''The Future of a Negation: Reflexion on the Genocide Issue'' (1982) (''Avenir d'une négation : réflexion sur la question du génocide'') and later his comments on the
Klaus Barbie
Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primar ...
trial, ''Remembering in Vain'' (''La Mémoire vaine'').
Finkielkraut feels particularly indebted to
Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics t ...
. In ''The Wisdom of Love'' (''La Sagesse de l'amour''), Finkielkraut discusses this debt in terms of modernity and its mirages. Finkielkraut continues his reflection on the matter in ''The Defeat of the Mind'' (1987) (''La Défaite de la pensée'') and ''The Ingratitude: Talks About Our Times'' (1999) (''Ingratitude : conversation sur notre temps'').
At the end of the 1990s, he founded with
Benny Lévy
Benny Lévy (also Pierre Victor; 1945–2003) was a philosopher, political activist and author. A political figure of May 1968 in France, he was the disciple and last personal secretary of Jean-Paul Sartre from 1974 to 1980.
Along with him, he he ...
and
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, political acti ...
an at Jerusalem.
Essayist on society
In recent years, Alain Finkielkraut has given his opinion on a variety of topics in society, such as the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
in ''The Internet, The Troubling Ecstasy'' (2001) (''Internet, l'inquiétante extase''). In the book ''Present Imperfect'' (2002) (''L'Imparfait du présent''), akin to a personal diary, he expresses his thoughts about various events in the world (especially the events of
11 September 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
).
Controversies
In 1995 Finkielkraut denounced the Cannes Film Festival's jury award, saying:
In recognizing "Underground", the Cannes jury thought it was honouring a creator with a thriving imagination. In fact, it has honoured a servile and flashy illustrator of criminal clichés. The Cannes jury ... praised a version of the most hackneyed and deceitful Serb propaganda. The devil himself could not have conceived so cruel an outrage against Bosnia, nor such a grotesque epilogue to Western incompetence and frivolity.
It was later revealed that Finkielkraut had not seen the film before writing his criticism.
His interview published in the ''
Haaretz'' magazine in November 2005 in which he gave his opinion about the
2005 French riots
The 2005 French riots (french: Émeutes de 2005 dans les Banlieues Françaises), was a three-week period of riots in the suburbs of Paris and other French cities, in October and November 2005. These riots involved youth in violent attacks, and t ...
stirred up much controversy. Finkielkraut's remarked that the
France national football team
The France national football team (french: Équipe de France de football) represents France in men's international football matches. It is governed by the French Football Federation (FFF; ), the governing body for football in France. It is ...
was ''"black, black, black, which causes sneers all over Europe"'' (as opposed to the expression ''"
black-blanc-beur"''—meaning "Black, White, Arab"—coined after the
1998 World Cup victory to honor the African and Afro Caribbean, European and North African origins of the players), adding that "if you point this out in France, you are thrown in jail." He also denounced
African-American Muslims, claiming that there is an "Islamization of the blacks" happening in both America and France.
Anti-Zionist filmmaker
Eyal Sivan took legal action against Finkielkraut after the Frenchman said Sivan "is, if you will, one of the actors in this particularly painful, particularly alarming reality, the Jewish anti-Semitism that rages today."
In 2009, he was criticized for his comment on
Roman Polanski sexual offence in which a 13-year-old girl was involved. Finkielkraut claimed that she was a "teenager", "not a child".
He has been criticized for his close friendship with Croatian president
Franjo Tuđman and was accused by
David Bruce MacDonald of supporting "a nation whose leader was a Holocaust revisionist, at the helm of an authoritarian government."
In August 2018, Finkielkraut expressed in an interview with ''
The Times of Israel
''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. '' his worries for French Jews and the future of France: "The anti-Semitism we're now experiencing in France is the worst I've ever seen in my lifetime, and I'm convinced it's going to get worse".
On 16 February 2019, Finkielkraut was accosted on the street by a group of
yellow vest protesters in Paris when they chanced on him in
Boulevard du Montparnasse. A 36-year-old French convert to Islam was indicted after saying that Finkelkraut was "going to die".
Finkelkraut had previously expressed his sympathy for the yellow vest movement. In April, Finkelkraut stated that he had been repeatedly accosted by street protestors and told reporters, "I can no longer show my face on the street".
In April 2019,
IEP (Sciences Po) announced the cancellation of a forum where Finkielkraut was to be a speaker, due to threats by «antifas».
Eugénie Bastié of ''
Le Figaro
''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of r ...
'' denounced the cancellation as a "gangrenous" symptom of the Americanisation of French university life.
The announcement was intended to mislead far-left protestors, and the lecture went on in a different location.
While on the French TV channel
LCI, he commented on the
Duhamel scandal involving incest with a 13-14 boy and his father-in-law. Finkielkraut analyzed the affair from a post-
68 perspective and described the victim as a "teenager", as a result of which he was summarily fired within days by the
French TV news network he was working for as a commentator.
''Another French Intellectual Falls After Comments on Abuse Accusations''
by Roger Cohen for "The New York Times", 13 January 2021. Accessed 23 June 2021.
Bibliography
The Religion of Humanity and the Sin of the Jews
essay in Azure magazine.
Reflections on the Coming Anti-Semitism
essay in Azure magazine.
* ''Ralentir, mots-valises !'', Seuil (1979)
* ''Le nouveau désordre amoureux'', Seuil (1977)
* ''Au coin de la rue, l'aventure'', Seuil (1979)
* ''Petit fictionnaire illustré : les mots qui manquent au dico'', Seuil (1981)
* ''Le Juif imaginaire'', Seuil (1981)
* ''L'avenir d'une négation'', Seuil (1982)
* ''La sagesse de l'amour'', Gallimard (1984)
* ''La défaite de la pensée'', Gallimard (1987)
* ''La mémoire vaine, du Crime contre l'humanité'', Gallimard (1989)
* ''Comment peut-on être Croate ?'', Gallimard (1992)
* ''L'humanité perdue'', Seuil (1996)
* ''Le mécontemporain. Charles Péguy, lecteur du monde moderne'', Gallimard (1992)
* ''L'ingratitude. Conversation sur notre temps avec Antoine Robitaille'', Gallimard (1999)
* ''Une voix vient de l'autre rive'', Gallimard (2000)
* ''Internet, l'inquiétante extase'', Mille et une nuits (2001)
* ''Penser le XXe siècle'', École Polytechnique (2000)
* ''Des hommes et des bêtes'', Tricorne (2000)
* ''L'imparfait du présent. Pièces brèves'', Gallimard (2002)
* ''Enseigner les lettres aujourd'hui'', Tricorne (2003)
* ''Les battements du monde'', Pauvert (2003)
* ''Au nom de l'Autre. Réflexions sur l'antisémitisme qui vient'', Gallimard (2003)
* ''Nous autres, modernes : quatre leçons'', Ellipses (2005)
* ''Ce que peut la littérature,'' Stock (2006)
* ''Entretiens sur la laïcité'', Verdier (2006)
* ''Qu'est-ce que la France,'' Stock (2007)
* ''La querelle de l'école'', Stock (2007)
* ''Philosophie et modernité'', École Polytechnique (2008)
* ''Un cœur intelligent'', Stock/Flammarion (2009)
* « Pour une décence commune » in ''Regards sur la crise. Réflexions pour comprendre la crise… et en sortir'', essay contributed to a collective work edited by Antoine Mercier, Paris, Éditions Hermann
Éditions Hermann () is a French publishing house founded in 1876, by the French professor of mathematics Arthur Hermann. It publishes books on science and the arts.
''Éléments de mathématique''
Hermann is noted for publishing several volu ...
, 2010.
* ''L'explication, conversation avec Aude Lancelin'', with Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Fouca ...
, Nouvelles Éditions Lignes, 2010.
* ''L'interminable écriture de l'Extermination'', with Finkielkraut's direction, transcriptions of TV appearances on Répliques de France Culture, Stock, 2010.
* ''Et si l'amour durait'', Stock, 2011
* ''L'identité malheureuse'', Stock, 2013
* ''La Seule Exactitude'', Stock, 2015
* ''En terrain miné'', with Élisabeth de Fontenay, Stock, 2017
* ''À la première personne'', Gallimard, 2019
* ''L'après littérature'', Stock, 2021
References
External links
Official website of the Institute for Levinassian Studies, co-founded by Alain Finkielkraut, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Benny Lévy
“Voices on Antisemitism” Interview with Alain Finkielkraut
from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkielkraut, Alain
1949 births
Living people
20th-century French essayists
20th-century French male writers
20th-century French philosophers
21st-century French essayists
21st-century French male writers
21st-century French philosophers
ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni
French Ashkenazi Jews
French male essayists
French people of Polish-Jewish descent
French Zionists
Jewish philosophers
Members of the Académie Française
New Philosophers
Writers from Paris
École Polytechnique faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty