CES: Variations on Simone Weil: European and North American Receptions of Her Antisemitica

Date: 

Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 4:15pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

Center for European Studies, Cabot Room, Busch Hall

Speaker(s): Benjamin Braude, Professor of History, Boston College

Sponsor(s):  Jews in Modern Europe; Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History; Contemporary Europe

Paradoxically Simone Weil was both one of the most polarizing thinkers in the twentieth century and an important unifying figure for both left and right in post-war France. Some called her a pacifist saint and others as bad as Hitler. This talk will argue that Weil's expressions of antisemitism, often eliminated in translation, were more tolerated in France because, having worked for both Petainists and Gaullistes, she became a vehicle for post-war reconciliation.

Contact(s): Phyllis Albert, phyllisalbert@gmail.com