Celine: The Success of the Monstre Sacre in Postwar France

In his excellent study of the way in which Louis-Ferdinand Céline is portrayed in French school textbooks, Alain Cresciucci refers to the author’s “classicisation remarquable” (220), by which, and in spite of “une contre réception pugnace,” Céline moved from the near-oblivion of the Pariah in the 1950s and 1960s to canonical status by the end of the twentieth century, becoming a “modèle de l’auteur devenu classique” (221). In fact, the case of Céline is highly instructive, not least because of the extremes between which his reputation lurches, providing valuable insight into the process and effectiveness of the Epuration following the Liberation, and into the workings of literary history itself.