ABSTRACT
The 21st century represents in general a separation between intellectuals and the public space. Seldom have intellectuals and the political world diverged so much. As such, intellectuals are no longer described as “superheroes of the mind”, but simply as critical idealists who look beyond the scope of our everyday life. Today, critical intellectuals are an endangered species. Today’s intellectuals have a fear of the political and it seems as if the political has also a terrible indifference to what could be called “intellectual”. It is with the Dreyfus affair in 19th-century France that the category of the “intellectual” became recognized for the first time, accompanied by a slightly different interpretation of its “public” role. Despite the ideological differences among intellectuals during the Dreyfus affair, both sides agreed that the intellectual should be engaged. But what an intellectual like Émile Zola saw at stake in the Dreyfus affair was to use his ideas as a way to denounce injustice. Zola’s pamphlet, “J’Accuse”, became the critical spear of many writers, artists, journalists, and academicians who jointly signed a “Manifesto” and declared Dreyfus innocent and wrongly imprisoned.
