Group for War and Culture Studies
 
Research Seminar and Book Launch
 
Wednesday 23rd May, 6 ­ 9 p.m.
Room 107, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW


Research Seminar
Music of poetry and truth:
, 25 March 1945
Claire Launchbury, Royal Holloway, University of  London


Francis Poulenc¹s Figure  humaine opens with the words ³of all the
springtimes of the world, there was  never one so vile². The cantata was
premiered by the BBC on 25 March 1945 in  celebration of cultural renewal
between France and Great Britain following the  Liberation, and fêted the
role played by the BBC in its broadcasts to France  under Nazi occupation.
This paper takes the figure of Spring as its departure  point. Evocative of
light, liberty and rebirth, Spring is contrasted with  imprisonment, either
through foreign occupation (les années noires), or,  as in the testimony of
Charlotte Delbo, when the memory of a Parisian springtime  haunts her
incarceration at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Examination of various  sources ­ poetry, testimony and music ­, and their
dissemination, sous le  manteau, airdropped by the RAF or broadcast en
masse, calls into question the social life of such texts and our
contemporary understanding of creative material nourished by the suspended
time of the  archive.
 
Claire Launchbury is currently completing her PhD thesis on the BBC and
French Music during World War Two at Royal Holloway, University of London.
She plans to continue research into broadcast music and memory at the École
des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris.
 
Book Launch
The paper will be followed by a reception to celebrate the publication of
Six Authors in Captivity: Literary Responses to the Occupation of France
during World War II, eds Ethel Tolansky and Dr Nicole Thatcher, Peter Lang,
2006.
 
This book examines the varied responses of six French authors to war, the
French occupation and imprisonment. Jean Cassou (chapter by Jennifer Ross)
was imprisoned as a member of a Resistance network and held incommunicado.
During this time he composed sonnets in his head which he was able to
publish later. Jean Cayrol (chapter by Ethel Tolansky) was impelled to 
write poems and novels by his deportation to Mauthausen concentration camp 
for Resistance activities. Madeleine Riffaud (chapter by Nicole Thatcher), 
aged only 18 in 1942, reflected her Resistance experience, imprisonment and
torture in her post-war prose and poems. A well-known literary critic and
writer, Pierre-Henri Simon (chapter by Bernard Baritaud), composed poetry 
in his Stalag and wrote fiction and political essays after the war. Max 
Jacob (chapter by Olga Rosenbaum), who died in Drancy, wrote poems and 
letters reflecting his personal views and feelings on the Œimprisonment¹ 
of the Occupation itself. Philippe Soupault (chapter by Debra Kelly) was 
actively engaged in Resistance with the founding of Radio Tunis to combat 
the Italian Fascist station Radio Bari, broadcasting across the 
Mediterranean and North Africa. Imprisoned for these activities in 1942, 
he used poetry to keep a spirit of resistance alive. Each of these authors 
sought to maintain the spirit of the Resistance, bear witness to the 
times, and contribute to the future, using literature as their instrument.
 
Entrance free ­ all welcome. Nearest tube: Oxford Circus.