Jean grave (1854-1939) : journaliste et ecrivain anarchiste
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Paris 7Disciplines:
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Abstract EN:
A self-made man, grave edited these anarchist papers : le revolte, la revolte, les temps nouveaux, for some thirty years from 1883 to 1914 ans showed so much tenacity that it enabled him to overcome ceaseless difficulties. On top of his work as a propagnadist for the press (he was to publish some hundred pamphlets with a citculation over two million and a literary supplement), he wrote five volumes devoted to anarchism, the first of which : la societe mourante et l'anarchie, (1893) was to cost him two years in jail. He also wrote social novels and a play. After believing in and wishing for the imminence of revolution, he thought that changes leading to a libertarian society could only be brought about by active minorities and he became an "educationist" whose argument was as follows : one can institute and consolidate a social revolution only if mentalities change and evolve, one must "put ideas into people's heads" before sparking off a revolution. Though he did not build up any system, grave ranks among the few wide-ranging minds that had a great impact on the french anarchist movement from 1880 to 1994
Abstract FR:
Autodidacte, grave dirigera pendant une trentaine d'annees du 1883 a 1914, trois journaux anarchistes. Le revolte, la revolte, les temps nouveaux, avec une tenacite telle qu'elle lui permit de surmonter d'incessantes difficultes. En plus de son travail de propagandiste par la presse, (il publiera une centaine de brochures tirees a plus de deux millions d'exemplaires et un supplement litteraire), il redigera cinq volumes consacres a la doctrine anarchiste, dont le premier : la societe mourante et l'anarchie (1893), lui vaudra deux ans de prison. Il a aussi ecrit des romans sociaux et une piece de theatre. Apres avoir cru a la revolution imminente et l'avoir souhaitee, il pense que les changements conduisant a une societe libertaire ne peuvent etre que le fait de "minorites agissantes"; il devient "educationniste". La revolution sociale ne peut s'etablir et durer que si les mentalites se transforment, evoluent; il faut "fourrer des idees dans la tete des gens", avant de faire la revolution. Sans etre un createur de systemes, grave compte parmi les quelques hommes d'envergure qui ont marque le mouvement anarchiste francais de 1880 a 1914.