ABSTRACT
On 24 February 1968, Marguerite Yourcenar, a long-time animal rights activist and now retired to Mount Desert Island, Maine, wrote to Brigitte Bardot to enlist her help and support in fighting against the baby seal hunt in Canada (Yourcenar 1995: 278–83). Bardot was at the zenith of her career, a Bardot whom Yourcenar clearly had yet to meet, a “friend” whose film career was likely as familiar to the future academician as the culture of the French can-can. One could not have dreamt of a better alliance in the history of animal rights. These two monuments of French culture could not have better represented the antipodes of what could be seen as the cultural capital of the French Republic. On one side, Yourcenar, serious, authoritarian, master of classic contemporary literature, lesbian; on the other side, Bardot, the sex kitten, tabloid queen, vibrant idol of a new generation, torrid sex symbol of the French cinema industry, and ambassadress of heterosexual culture. Strangely enough, in this letter released by the Yourcenar Fund at Harvard University, the two sacred monsters of French culture would seal their public image to embrace the same combat for animal rights.
