Pascal Bruckner

Pascal Bruckner (born December 15, 1948 in Paris) is a French writer. He is part of the "Cercle de l'Oratoire" think tank.

Biography

After studies at the university Paris I and Paris VII, and then at the "École Pratique des Hautes Études", he became "maître de conférences" at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, and collaborator at the Nouvel Observateur.

A prolific writer, Pascal Bruckner began writing in the vein of the so-called "nouveaux philosophes" and counts among their best known French proponents. He published "Parias, ou la tentation de l'Inde" ("Parias, or the temptation of India"), "Lunes de Fiel" (adapted to film by Roman Polanski) and "Les voleurs de beauté" ("The beauty stealers") (Prix Renaudot in 1997). Among essays, "La tentation de l'innocence" ("Temptation of innocence") (Prix Médicis in 1995) and, famously, "Le Sanglot de l'Homme blanc" ("The Cry of the White Man"), an attack against narcissistic and destructive policies in the interest for the Third World, and more recently 'La tyrannie de la pénitence' (2006), an essay on the West's endless self-criticism.

He is an active supporter of the US cause and the invasion of Iraq, signing letters and petitions in favor of Donald Rumsfeld, along with Romain Goupil and André Glucksmann [ " [http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/acheter.cgi?offre=ARCHIVES&type_item=ART_ARCH_30J&objet_id=790482&clef=ARC-TRK-G_01 Paradoxal pacifisme] , "Le Monde", 4 February 2003. See response by Acrimed [http://www.acrimed.org/article925.html Le Monde aboie contre Le Monde Diplomatique (suite)] ) fr icon] . Bruckner supported the leader of the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, Nicolas Sarkozy, during the campaign of the 2007 presidential election, claiming that the French Left now incarnated "conservatism" and that Sarkozy was the true heir of May '68 [ Pascal Bruckner, "Sarkozy, le soixante-huitard", op-ed in "Libération", 14 May 2007 ( [http://www.liberation.fr/rebonds/253530.FR.php on-line] ) fr icon ] .

His fiery polemic stance against multiculturalism has kindled an international debate.Pascal Bruckner - Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists? [http://www.signandsight.com/features/1146.html] , appeared originally in German in the online magazine "Perlentaucher" on January 24, 2007. en icon] In this tribune titled "Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists?", which defended in particular Ayaan Hirsi Ali by criticizing other tribunes by Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash, Bruckner brings in defence of his wide attack on Enlightenment, the position of modern philosopher ranging from Heidegger to Gadamer, Derrida, Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, mentioning how they had all joined together to say that "all the evils of our epoch were spawned by this philosophical and literary episode [the Enlightenment ] : capitalism, colonialism, totalitarianism. ," although later in the text settling for a preferable form of Enlightenment, as opposed to Anglo-saxon Enlightenment, by admiting that "Denouncing the excesses of the Enlightenment in the concepts that it forged means being true to its spirit.

Le Sanglot de l'Homme blanc

"Le Sanglot de l'Homme blanc" ("The Tears of the White Man"), published by the Éditions le Seuil in May 1983, subtitled "Third World, culpability and self-hatred", was a controversial opus. The author describes what he sees as a pro-Third-World sentimentalism of part of the Western Left-wing and its cheap self-culpabilisation; the essay had an influence on a whole trend of thought (Maurice Dantec, Michel Houellebecq).

Footnotes

External links

* http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/63/63/
* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/687.html "The Asterix complex"] , interview with Pascal Bruckner at signandsight.com
* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/1710.html] Boycot Durban II By Pascal Bruckner, 16/06/2008