Yet another biography of Séverine? Perhaps, but this one highlights the journalistic technique of the great journalist Séverine, her passion for the press in service of the people. The book opens with the tragedy of the Paris Opera House fire. On the evening of May 25, 1887, a cry rang out across the boulevards: "The Comédie-Française is burning!" Séverine was 32 years old, and in the following days, she went to the scene to write an article conveying the inferno and the suffering. This was her style, her method; she didn't write from her desk. Let's return to the observation of Séverine Garnier, author of the book Séverine, A Journalist for the People: "Séverine's 'inside' reporting was a real eye-opener for the readers who followed the affair all the way to the trial of those responsible." For the public, as for her, there was only one question: "Who kept the doors locked? Who is the murderer?"
Nothing predestined Séverine for journalism. She was raised like a naive girl, completely ignorant of the world. During the Siege of Paris in 1870, she was practically imprisoned in a strict religious institution. At the end of Bloody Week, she watched Paris burn from the Charenton bridge. Then she was married. Her wedding night was a nightmare, which she would later describe in detail. Pregnant, she kept the child but did not care for it. Let's stay with Séverine's journalistic career. She met Jules Vallès in Brussels and seemed hardly moved by him, finding him "ugly, gloomy, and very old."
Finally, in 1880, amnesty was proclaimed. Vallès was in Paris, where he met the young woman, who was terribly bored. He offered her a job, warning her: "I'm not an easy man, you know. You'll go through some tough times and hear some tough ones! But perhaps we can make something of you." She reread and corrected his articles, and co-wrote a play. He invited his "dear comrade," as he called her, to dinner with his revolutionary friends. "My friends are pure souls... Please do me the favor of coming dressed very simply."
After a suicide attempt, Séverine broke free from her parents' control. She was a constant presence in the Croissant district, the heart of the press. Vallès was demanding, knowing that time was running out to impart to his protégée "the entire alphabet of the Revolution." He left for London to write the chapters of *La Rue à Londres*. She protested against Vallès's harshness.
The Revival of Le Cri du Peuple
And above all, they witnessed the revival of Le Cri du Peuple, the newspaper with the largest circulation during the Commune. She modernized its format. Vallès intended to welcome all viewpoints. "It is the Federation of all those who, through the capitalist system, are exploited and crippled, thrown into misfortune and evil." As long as he was present, his authority prevailed, and no one dared challenge Séverine, who published her first article on November 23, 1883. Jules Vallès died on February 14, 1884. She established herself as the guardian of the institution, but other voices began to rise in the editorial staff, especially a certain Jules Guesde, whose sectarianism Vallès had noted. Rivalry developed between Séverine and Guesde. How could a woman lead a newspaper? She won the first round, but the cohesion of the editorial staff would be called into question. Guesde distanced herself from the newspaper's editorial line. Lissagaray, who had been too timid to confront Vallès, no longer held back in his newspaper, La Bataille. On February 1, 1887, she became the newspaper's editor. These pages are captivating; she embodies the newspaper, she lives it. "Each article is an opportunity to make her unique voice heard and to demonstrate her style: an extraordinary blend of structured and reasoned thought, a rich and evocative vocabulary, a streetwise wit, and interjections borrowed from everyday life," with a touch of lyricism when she speaks of the people. Just like Vallès!
Everywhere in the press
She diversified her publications and wrote, for example, for Le Gaulois. Weary of the rivalries, she left Le Cri du Peuple on August 29, 1888. However, she continued to write for and about these people. One must read her account of the descent into the mine and the tragedy of Saint-Étienne.
We see her byline in Gil Blas, Le Figaro, and La Libre Parole (she could have avoided it). She participated with great enthusiasm in the launch of the newspaper La Fronde with Marguerite Durand (Lucie Barette, Marguerite Durand, Lutter par la presse, Ed. Les Pérégrines, 2025). Her involvement in the Dreyfus Affair redeemed her mistake regarding General Boulanger. And then time passed, and she retired to her home in Pierrefonds in the Oise region. The great journalist died there on April 23, 1929. But her ideas, her freedom of speech, her freedom of morals are immensely modern. "Freedom without borders," as her mentor, Jules Vallès, demanded.
* Séverine Garnier
A Journalist for the People
Ed. Les Pérégrines,
https://monde-libertaire.net/?articlen=9066
_________________________________________
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten