(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

226
WILLI BOLLE
Notre drapeau n’a plus assez du ciel de France,
Aux minarets d’Égypte il faut qu’il se balance,
. . .
Alors ils nous verront, en travailleurs agiles,
Avec nos lanières de fer
Dompter les sables du desert;
Et comme des palmiers, croîtront partout des villes.
[Our flag has lost patience with the sky of France;
Over the minarets of Egypt it now must wave.
. . . . .
Then will they see us, workers adept,
With our ribbons of iron
Subduing the desert sands;
Cities, like palms, will spring up everywhere. (a12,4)]
The colonial project of the metropolis is presented here as a mix of
arrogant political power and civilizing mission. An important part of this
colonial ideology was the travel literature: “C’est la France qui la première
. . . a renforcé ses armées d’une brigade de géographes, de naturalistes,
d’archéologues” (“It is France that first . . . reinforced its armies with
a brigade of geographers, naturalists, and archaeologists,” d9,2), Charles
Louandre informs us in 1847. From a methodological point of view, this
quotation and the next one are examples of how Benjamin uses succinct
literary documents as textual monads to express the larger workings of
political and social history.
In this sense, the already mentioned Algerian affair of Alexandre
Dumas is typical of the involvement of bestselling authors in both literature
and politics:
En septembre 1846, le ministre Salvandy lui proposa de partir pour
l’Algérie et d’écrire un livre sur la colonie . . . Dumas . . . donnerait
bien à 50 ou 60.000 d’entre eux le goût de colonizer . . . Salvandy
offrait 10.000 francs pour solder les frais de voyage; Alexandre exigea
en outre . . . un vaisseau de l’État . . . Les parlementaires . . .
s’emparèrent de l’incident.
[In September 1846, Minister Salvandy proposed to him that he
travel to Algeria and write a book about the colony. . . . Dumas . . .
would give some fifty or sixty thousand [Frenchmen] a taste for
colonialism. . . . Salvandy offered 10.000 francs to cover the cost of
the voyage; Alexandre demanded, in addition to this, . . . a state vessel.
. . . Members of Parliament seized on the incident. (d4,1)]
The suspicion that this was a case of corrupt use of public money provoked
a parliamentary inquiry and resulted in public scandal.