They see him as a “reactionary icon”.
A collective of more than 1,200 actors from the cultural scene contest in a column published in Libération the nomination as godfather of the Spring of Poets of the writer Sylvain Tesson.
“We, poets, editors, booksellers, librarians, teachers, actresses and actors of the French cultural scene, speak out against the appointment of Sylvain Tesson and ask the Spring of Poets to renounce it,” claim they in this text, published Thursday by Libération.
“Literary far right”
The appointment of the successful writer Sylvain Tesson as sponsor of the 25th edition of the Spring of Poets, an annual event aimed at promoting poetry, was announced on January 10.
Sylvain Tesson is the godfather of the 25th anniversary of the Printemps des Poètes
Photography: Priscilla Telmon#sylvaintesson #25ans #printempsdespoetes2024 #printempsdespoètes2024 #lagrace #lagrâce #aveclesfees #equateurs #priscillatelmon #sophienauleau #printempsdespoetes pic.twitter.com/mlvmYbh09s
— The Spring of Poets (@P_D_Poetes) January 10, 2024
“We refuse to allow a cultural event to which we are inextricably linked in a symbolic way, created
in order to counter preconceived ideas
and to make manifest the extreme vitality of poetry,
to be embodied by a writer elevated to a reactionary icon” , write the signatories of the text, including the writer Baptiste Beaulieu, the poet Camille Bloomfield or
the author Chloé Delaume.
They recall that the author of “On the Black Paths” (2016) or “The Snow Panther” (2019) notably prefaced “a reference work of the extreme right,
Camp des saints,
by Jean Raspail”.
Sylvain Tesson was also presented as a leading figure of the “literary extreme right” by the journalist François Krug, in his essay “French Reactions”, they point out.
“We warn of the fact that (his) appointment (…), far from being contingent, reinforces the trivialization and normalization of the extreme right in the political and cultural spheres, and in society as a whole,” they judge, believing that “the trivialization of a reactionary ideology embodied by Sylvain Tesson goes against the extreme vitality of poetry claimed by the Spring of Poets”.
The Spring of Poets will take place this year from March 9 to 25.