11
From the Nouveaux
Philosophes to the Estates
General
1977–1979Ever since the beginning of the TV programme Apostrophes on 10
January 1975, the French media landscape had experienced a major
change of direction. The programme, chaired by Bernard Pivot on
Antenne 2, every Friday at 9.30 p.m., assumed a major place in
literary and intellectual life. The mere presence of an author on the
panel often increased his or her sales considerably, and a brilliant
performance could transform a diffi cult work into a best-seller.
The broadcast rapidly transformed editorial practices, encourag-
ing the emergence of a new generation of authors who had grown
up with television and could use the medium with ease. They wanted
to bypass the traditional modes of legitimation and address the
general public directly. The convergence of their interests with those
of Apostrophes was ideological as well as being a consequence of the
media involved: what counted for Bernard Pivot was less the books
than the debate they could arouse. This favoured the great ques-
tions of the day, starting with that of totalitarianism. Solzhenitsyn
- whose Gulag Archipelago had been translated into French in 1974
and caused a huge stir – was one of the fi rst guests. As for the nou-
veaux philosophes, they would always fi nd a major platform for their
ideas on Apostrophes.^1
On 27 May 1977, Pivot even off ered them a real launch pad,
with a special broadcast entitled ‘Are the nouveaux philosophes
on the left or the right?’ On the panel were Bernard-Henri Lévy,
André Glucksmann, and Maurice Clavel, on the one side, François
Aubral and Xavier Delcourt, the authors of Against the Nouvelle
Philosophie, on the other. The nouveaux philosophes were judged to
have performed more brilliantly than their detractors. The sales of
the fi rst book by Bernard-Henri Lévy (soon nicknamed ‘BHL’ for
short), Barbarism with a Human Face, soared the very next day, and
soon hit 80,000.
Widely supported by the mainstream media, including Le Monde