ABSTRACT
In 1950, at the behest of his then secretary Yvonne Davet, Gide agreed to have certain of his texts collected and published in a volume under the title Litterature engagee. For years Gide believed that the moral question of remoulding human nature should be given precedence over social questions. Like Dostoevsky, he thought it futile to change social institutions so long as human nature remained the same. In the 1930s, however, he reversed his stand. Gide's label for his new social philosophy proved extremely misleading. To the usual incomprehension and misunderstandings, new ones were added. In a diary entry of August 1933, Gide states that he can reconcile individualism and communism because he endows them with personal meaning. The spectacle of human misery receives special attention from the communist Gide. For years Gide felt that capitalism had become a serious menace to civilization; but never is he more apprehensive for the future than in the 1930s.
