“Le Partisan” d’Albert&#8239Memmi&#8239: un essai in-fini

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Albert Memmi, then a student at the Sorbonne, developed an essay, Le Partisan. An essay on the constitution of a psycho-sociological role, which he developed into a second version, consisting of aphorisms. The essay was submitted to teachers and fellow students for reading, but was quickly put back in the writer’s drawers. Some forty years later, Memmi returned to it: considering the notion of partisanship in light of current events marked by Islamic fundamentalism, he resumed his reflection and wrote a large number of notes as well as an account –which remained unfinished– of the genesis of this essay, trying to clarify a certain number of starting points. The essay was once again stored in Memmi’s drawers. What was it about the author of Portrait du colonisé that caused such resistance and prevented the essay, portrait before the fact, from being completed? What founding motive can we detect in this early essay that led Memmi to take it up again in his maturity and to think about it again shortly before his death? Why did Memmi feel the need to write an aphoristic version of The Partisan? We will try to answer these questions on the basis of the various draft texts.

Keywords

• supporter
• activist
• fundamentalism
• essay
• aphorism
• portrait