Jeunes écrivains durant la première occupation allemande de la Belgique

Abstract

The German occupation of almost the whole of the metropolitan territory of Belgium between 1914 and 1918 places young writers in very different positions (Yser Front, African Front or Russian Front; German camps; occupied country; life in France or in Great Britain; Dutch camps). The Russian revolution affected them in these very different situations. This article examines the attitudes of some of the bearers of the aesthetic innovation of the Interwar period, particularly of Michel de Ghelderode or Clément Pansaers. The latter provided Ghelderode with an initial literary springboard in Résurrection, a review published under the control, and with the support, of the occupier, in which Pansaers kept a political chronical which is analysed in this study. As defendants of revolutionary ideas, Plisnier, Seuphor or Nougé, for their part, remained silent until the armistice of November 1918 and never exposed themselves to the ambiguity of behaviours and discourses.

Keywords

• World War I
• Russian Revolution
• avant-garde
• pacifism
• Collaboration