Down to Earth: André Malraux’s Political
Itinerary and the Natural World
Martin Hurcombe
Abstract: The intellectual and ideological engagements of André Malraux are read here through the figures of flight and return to earth. If
flight affords a liberating perspective on the human condition in Malraux’s early work, this chapter contends that the Spanish Civil War
and the Second World War represent a brutal but necessary return to
earth, characterized by the Resistance fighters of the maquis and the
grim endurance of the French peasantry.
André Malraux’s decision in 1945 to become a member of Général de
Gaulle’s government signalled not only the beginning of an association that would last until the latter’s death, but also what appeared to
many a radical political transformation. One of France’s foremost
anti-fascists, and an apologist for revolutionary action in the pre-war
period, Malraux emerged from the Second World War entranced by
the mystique of de Gaulle and an apologist for nationalism. The possibility of Malraux’s political itinerary from Communist fellow traveller
and author of revolutionary fiction to supporter of de Gaulle, recent
studies have suggested, lies in his evolving metaphysical conception
of the human condition.
1 The present chapter adopts a similar approach, but locates this itinerary in Malraux’s shifting depiction of the
relationship between humanity and the natural world. Underlying this
evolving relationship, this chapter will argue, we can discern a recon___________________________
1 For example, Geoffrey T. Harris, André Malraux: A Reassessment (London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1996) and Gino Raymond, André Malraux: Politics and the Temptation of Myth (Aldershot: Avebury, 1995). Subsequent references to source texts will
appear as page numbers either in the body of the text or in footnote form.
Itinerary and the Natural World
Martin Hurcombe
Abstract: The intellectual and ideological engagements of André Malraux are read here through the figures of flight and return to earth. If
flight affords a liberating perspective on the human condition in Malraux’s early work, this chapter contends that the Spanish Civil War
and the Second World War represent a brutal but necessary return to
earth, characterized by the Resistance fighters of the maquis and the
grim endurance of the French peasantry.
André Malraux’s decision in 1945 to become a member of Général de
Gaulle’s government signalled not only the beginning of an association that would last until the latter’s death, but also what appeared to
many a radical political transformation. One of France’s foremost
anti-fascists, and an apologist for revolutionary action in the pre-war
period, Malraux emerged from the Second World War entranced by
the mystique of de Gaulle and an apologist for nationalism. The possibility of Malraux’s political itinerary from Communist fellow traveller
and author of revolutionary fiction to supporter of de Gaulle, recent
studies have suggested, lies in his evolving metaphysical conception
of the human condition.
1 The present chapter adopts a similar approach, but locates this itinerary in Malraux’s shifting depiction of the
relationship between humanity and the natural world. Underlying this
evolving relationship, this chapter will argue, we can discern a recon___________________________
1 For example, Geoffrey T. Harris, André Malraux: A Reassessment (London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1996) and Gino Raymond, André Malraux: Politics and the Temptation of Myth (Aldershot: Avebury, 1995). Subsequent references to source texts will
appear as page numbers either in the body of the text or in footnote form.