The Nature and Function of Generational Discourse in France on the Eve of World War I

Intellectuals frequently express themselves in generational terms. Often they do so in passing as when in 1930 André Malraux lamented the bland formative years of his age group: “We grew up in a time of peace; we have not been tested by the shock of a war or revolution which would have been so useful to us.” ¹ Sometimes generations receive more extended treatment as in collective memoirs like Charles Péguy’s Notre jeunesse (1910). ² Now and then, a generational reading of the direction of history evokes a wider response. The “Consciousness III controversy” precipitated by Charles Reich’s The Greening of America (1970) is an example from the recent past. ³ As an illustration of how intellectuals involved in the controversies of their time and addressing themselves to the public at large use the notion of generations, this essay examines a comparable debate in France immediately before World War I.