Pontigny, pr'sences britanniques.

Steel, D. A. (2005) Pontigny, pr'sences britanniques. In: S.I.E.C.L.E. Colloque de Cerisy. 100 ans de rencontres intellectuelles de Pontigny ' Cerisy :. Editions de l'IMEC. ISBN 290829575X

Abstract

This invited chapter in colloquium proceedings focuses on Anglo-French intellectual networking and presents an account and an analysis of British participation at the Pontigny gatherings 1910-1913 and 1922-39. The 2002 colloquium (participants included Derrida) celebrated the centenary of Paul Desjardins' 1892 founding of the Union pour l'Action Morale and the subsequent beginnings of the famous Pontigny Entretiens ongoing today at Cerisy-la-Salle. Following initial remarks on pre-Desjardins historical connections between England and Pontigny Abbey, the article uncovers the origins of the links between Desjardins and British intellectuals in the context of the pre-World War I Entretiens. Unpublished letters are quoted illustrating the seminal roles of the Cambridge academic cleric, Pascalian H. F. Stewart and of the Raverat family. Attendance at Pontigny debates by Stewart and other churchmen, by the Catholic Modernist Maud Petre, by Edmund Gosse, H. G. Wells, Violet Paget is established and their contributions discussed. The pivotal event of Gide's 1918 Cambridge stay and his new contacts established there brought numerous British participants to inter-war Pontigny, inter alia Lytton Strachey and sisters Dorothy and Pernel Strachey, the classicist Jane Harrison and art critic Roger Fry. Their contributions and responses to Pontigny are examined. British intellectuals invited but unable to attend are noted. Consideration is then given to distinguished British figures not invited, Woolf, Lawrence and more notably Keynes, and hypotheses raised ' involving, for Keynes, the terms of the Versailles Treaty, for Lawrence the nature and class tone of Pontigny - as to why. Final commentary is on the motivations for Desjardins' (and Gide's, as major cross-Channel recruiter) links to Britain - pure international meeting of minds or an attempt to broaden the export market for Nouvelle Revue Fran'aise authors. Both no doubt.