Abstract EN:

The research deals with the only literary periodical which was not published in Paris, but even though has a national audience -les Cahiers du Sud - a publication which, unlike many others, such as the NRF, Esprit, etc… could "exist" during the gloomy period 1940-1944. The materials consist of all the review's issues (regular and thematic ones), as well as the rich collection of letters written to the review's director, Jean Ballard, by numerous collaborators and readers and the copy of the answers, they received from him. The main problem deals with the “maintenance” of the publication in this time of great trouble. More accurately, it is to delineate the mission that Jean Ballard wanted his collaborators to perform, ie "la mission de l'esprit". The very different attitudes of the contributors have been even if some contributions were obviously tuned with the themes, the "revolution nationale" has developed, especially between 1940 and 1942, the "Cahiers du sud" have always provided the necessary space for non, conformist considerations and for the very debate that could help to overcome many ambiguous attitudes of the time. The "cahiers" have fulfilled their very function, ie, to be a literary periodical, deeply concerned with the "spiritual situation of the age" and open-minded to the diversity of cultures.