Stefan Zweig and Europe : culture against nationalisms ; Stefan Zweig et l'Europe : culture contre nationalismes

Abstract

International audience ; In the 1930's, as the shadow of an international conflict is looming on anew, only few intellectuals are claiming their apolitism. Yet Stefan Zweig is doing just so, because he distrusts every form of political engagement since First World War, considering that the national concept led to different kinds of imperialism. As a consequence, he develops an idea of Europe out of a strictly political framework, a so untimely view as Nietzsche's in his own time ; the german philosoph is well one of Zweig's explicit references.This view does not deny nationalism, does not search to melt the cultures, but relies on reciprocical knowledge and the construction of a « supranational consciousness ». Judging the union inevitable in the Historical movement, the author worries about what would be an only economical union ; such a building, in his mind, could not guarantee a lasting peace, as the countries would not be cured of imperialism, their political disease. On the contrary, a cultural Europe could allow that States respect each other, avoiding the possibility of self withdraw, and a caricatural ignorance of their neighbors, such as before and during the First World War. Visionary, and at the same time deeprooted in the twentieth century, Zweig's thinking about Europe appear fertile still to our contemporary European view. ; Dans les années 1930, au moment où se profile de nouveau l'ombre d'un affrontement entre nations, rares sont les intellectuels qui revendiquent leur apolitisme. C'est pourtant ce que fait Stefan Zweig, lui qui regarde avec une méfiance grandissante, depuis la Première Guerre Mondiale, toute forme d'engagement politique, et considère que le concept de nation a mené aux impérialismes. Il développe donc une idée de l'Europe hors du cadre politique au sens étroit. Conception aussi intempestive que l'était celle de Nietzsche à son époque ; ce dernier fait d'ailleurs partie des penseurs auxquels Zweig se réfère explicitement. Il ne nie pas le nationalisme, ne cherche pas à fondre ...