We were thrown metaphorically back into lectures this week and our subject was Emile Zola and more specifically the Dreyfus affair which lead to Zola's famous piece, J'Accuse. The piece itself is one of the most important pieces of journalism that we have looked at so far, but to understand it, you have to look at the context of the time and the events surrounding it.
J'Accuse was written after a war between the once mighty French army (in Napoleonic times at least) and the Prussian Army combined with the Germanic states. The French lost. Embarrassing right? Well they certainly thought so. They thought it was so bad, that they needed to blame a random Jewish officer, and sentence him to a lifetime on Devil's Island with no human contact and barely enough food to survive. Let's hope the justice system in France has moved on a little since then. If it has it will be somewhat down to the actions of Emile Zola as he wrote and published the influential J'Accuse; investigative journalism at its best. The point behind J'Accuse was that many people knew that Dreyfus was innocent, and in fact knew that another man Esterhazy was the true culprit and traitor, but those in the highest seats of power chose to do nothing. In J'Accuse, Zola accuses outright those whom he believes through his investigative journalism have the hand of blame upon them for the imprisonment of Dreyfus, fully understanding that by doing so he is breaching the country's libel laws, defaming people left, right and centre. As is standard amongst controversial historical figures, Zola had to run away to London to escape persecution but the upshot of his most famous work is that Dreyfus was eventually pardoned. Yes, pardoned. Even with the force of the truth behind him, exposed by Zola, Dreyfus had to accept a pardon, almost like saying "I did it but you're letting me go because you're nice".
The political climate at the time of the Dreyfus affair was not the best, the war against the Prussian forces still fresh in the memory, France tried to create an Empire themselves to establish a sense of pride in the country. The country was still seen as militaristic so the Army was seen as a symbol of French identity. So whilst France wanted revenge against Germany/Prussia, they knew they couldn't defeat them so this is where Dreyfus comes in. The actual events leading up to Dreyfus being accused are easy enough to understand. Dreyfus was a captain in the French army around the time some secret documents were found in a bin inside the German Embassy. "How did they get there?" I don't hear you ask; well as I said before it turns out Esterhazy was the real culprit passing secrets, but there was a lot of anti-Semitism at the time in France, so Jewish Dreyfus was framed and court-martialed and so on (see above).
I think for the purposes of this blog it may also be interesting to look at the Paris Commune, an organisation set up by the workers whilst the rich landlords were hiding from the Prussian invaders, somewhere in France. The Commune was set up in March 18, 1871 and lasted a very short time until May 28th of that same year. It is often hailed as the first assumption of power by the working class during the industrial revolution; Karl Marx called it "the dictatorship of the proletariat." The movement was not just Marxist or Anarchic, it also had a feminist agenda, setting up nurseries, abolishing night working and establishing the right of workers to take over businesses; It also separated the Church and the State. Eventually though, the rich returned with armies and the Commune was ruthlessly destroyed, 20 to 30,000 are thought to have been executed, concentrating on the working class areas of Paris. It was a short lived movement, but had great impact on the politics of France and the wider world.
Back to J'Accuse. Whilst Zola's article never got Dreyfus acquitted, it did cause some people to think about the government and its corruption, in fact it took an entirely new government to even pardon Dreyfus, such was the level of corruption. Dreyfus was brought back from Devil's Island a broken man and though he went on to fight in World War 1, the final irony came when his granddaughter dies during World War 2 in Auschwitz death camp.
Well that was the last blog of lectures of my first year studying Journalism. Hope you've enjoyed reading my blog, I'm sure I'll keep it updated over the summer.
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
The political climate at the time of the Dreyfus affair was not the best, the war against the Prussian forces still fresh in the memory, France tried to create an Empire themselves to establish a sense of pride in the country. The country was still seen as militaristic so the Army was seen as a symbol of French identity. So whilst France wanted revenge against Germany/Prussia, they knew they couldn't defeat them so this is where Dreyfus comes in. The actual events leading up to Dreyfus being accused are easy enough to understand. Dreyfus was a captain in the French army around the time some secret documents were found in a bin inside the German Embassy. "How did they get there?" I don't hear you ask; well as I said before it turns out Esterhazy was the real culprit passing secrets, but there was a lot of anti-Semitism at the time in France, so Jewish Dreyfus was framed and court-martialed and so on (see above).
I think for the purposes of this blog it may also be interesting to look at the Paris Commune, an organisation set up by the workers whilst the rich landlords were hiding from the Prussian invaders, somewhere in France. The Commune was set up in March 18, 1871 and lasted a very short time until May 28th of that same year. It is often hailed as the first assumption of power by the working class during the industrial revolution; Karl Marx called it "the dictatorship of the proletariat." The movement was not just Marxist or Anarchic, it also had a feminist agenda, setting up nurseries, abolishing night working and establishing the right of workers to take over businesses; It also separated the Church and the State. Eventually though, the rich returned with armies and the Commune was ruthlessly destroyed, 20 to 30,000 are thought to have been executed, concentrating on the working class areas of Paris. It was a short lived movement, but had great impact on the politics of France and the wider world.
Back to J'Accuse. Whilst Zola's article never got Dreyfus acquitted, it did cause some people to think about the government and its corruption, in fact it took an entirely new government to even pardon Dreyfus, such was the level of corruption. Dreyfus was brought back from Devil's Island a broken man and though he went on to fight in World War 1, the final irony came when his granddaughter dies during World War 2 in Auschwitz death camp.
Well that was the last blog of lectures of my first year studying Journalism. Hope you've enjoyed reading my blog, I'm sure I'll keep it updated over the summer.
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
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