Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism | Benda, Julien - David L. Schalk (essay date 1979)

David L. Schalk (essay date 1979)

SOURCE: "The Case against Engagement: Julien Benda and La Trahison des Clercs," in The Spectrum of Political Engagement: Mounier, Benda, Nizan, Brasillach, Sartre, Princeton University Press, 1979, pp. 26-48.

[Schalk is an American writer and educator. In the following excerpt, he considers Benda's views on political engagement and examines the critical reception of Th e Treason of the Intellectuals, as well as the practical understanding of Benda's ideas by various thinkers.]

The idea of a treason or betrayal of the intellectuals has had an enormous success. This concept may be viewed as the reverse of the coin of engagement, or perhaps a slightly distorted mirror-image. It has become a commonplace in America and England. In France it may be traced back at least to the Dreyfus Affair, when intellectuals acquired along with their name a special critical function, and because of the victory...

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