Hugh McDonnell
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781781383025
- eISBN:
- 9781781384060
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781383025.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Chapter 5 examines the Fédération des étudiants nationalistes (FEN). For this important and very visible far-right wing student group founded in 1960, Europe and its defence were central terms of ...
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Chapter 5 examines the Fédération des étudiants nationalistes (FEN). For this important and very visible far-right wing student group founded in 1960, Europe and its defence were central terms of reference, even obsession. The group was active in French student politics, producing and distributing journals, contesting student representative positions, organising political meetings and demonstrations, and revelling in street fights. The FEN concerned itself with a whole range of subjects from trivial issues of student life to grand theories of hierarchy in world politics. Its brand of nationalism was located within a vision of an integral Europe. Indeed, a nation was reckoned to be a European privilege and the notion of non-European nationalisms was as outrageous as it was dangerous. As such, Europe was only of value to the group to the extent that it extended to the non-European world. Should decolonisation be carried to its conclusion and Europe reduced to its European geographical limits, Europe would be worth very little at all.Less
Chapter 5 examines the Fédération des étudiants nationalistes (FEN). For this important and very visible far-right wing student group founded in 1960, Europe and its defence were central terms of reference, even obsession. The group was active in French student politics, producing and distributing journals, contesting student representative positions, organising political meetings and demonstrations, and revelling in street fights. The FEN concerned itself with a whole range of subjects from trivial issues of student life to grand theories of hierarchy in world politics. Its brand of nationalism was located within a vision of an integral Europe. Indeed, a nation was reckoned to be a European privilege and the notion of non-European nationalisms was as outrageous as it was dangerous. As such, Europe was only of value to the group to the extent that it extended to the non-European world. Should decolonisation be carried to its conclusion and Europe reduced to its European geographical limits, Europe would be worth very little at all.
