French Literature Reviews - 2026

Scientific Prépas: Thinking History (PUF)
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Penser l'histoire.
Catherine Durvye, Guy Fessier, Etienne Akamatsu

PUF
Coll. "Major"
2007
Isbn : 978-2-13-056276-4
208p
15€

Publisher's Note:

Can we think about history, or can we only live through it and bear witness to it? Are historians merely pale commentators? In fact, none of the three authors studied here (within the framework of the 2007/2008 competitive exam curriculum) are historians in the strict sense. But is thinking about history not a way of writing it?
Horace, the Revolutionaries, Napoleon III: all of them made history, or contributed to making it.
At least they thought they did. Perhaps they simply "made a fuss," and bloody ones at that. Yet all of them stepped in at the birth of a new world, a new era in history. All were designated in their time as "great men." Did they reflect upon their work? Are there visionary great men? Or are we merely puppets of Providence, of chance, of the absurd? Can we think about history, or only live through it and bear witness to it? In that case, would historians not be mere pale commentators? Indeed, none of the three authors studied here—Corneille, Chateaubriand, and Marx—is a historian in the proper sense.
Could the true "thinkers" of history be artists? Is thinking about history not writing it?

Table of Contents:

Foreword

Part One: Thinking History. Expanding the Questionnaire by Catherine Durvye

Prolegomena to the Study of the Subject — Thoughts on History — Conclusion

Part Two: Horace, or Tragic History by Catherine Durvye

Introduction — The Legend of the Horatii and the Curiatii According to Livy: A Mythical Thought — Corneille's Adaptation: An Allegorical Thought — The Tragic Conception of History in Horace — Conclusion

Part Three: "The Lyre that Thinks or Sings." History Rethought in Chateaubriand's Mémoires d'outre-tombe by Guy Fessier

Part Four: Karl Marx's The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Commentaries by Etienne Akamatsu

The authors, holders of the agrégation in philosophy or literature, are well-acquainted with the Major series intended for students in preparatory classes: Étienne Akamatsu, Catherine Durvye (Lycée Lakanal) and Guy Fessier (Lycée de Saint-Cloud).

Scientific Prépas. 4 other publications related to the curriculum:
http://www.Fabula.org/actualites/article19361.php

The study of history through literary and philosophical lenses has long been a central concern in French intellectual life, particularly within the tradition of the grandes écoles preparatory classes. This volume addresses the tension between lived experience and historical reflection, questioning whether history is a process observed by scholars or an active creation by political and artistic figures. The authors explore whether those who shape historical events possess a conscious understanding of their impact or are subject to larger forces.

The analysis centers on three figures studied in the context of the 2007/2008 competitive exam curriculum: Pierre Corneille, François-René de Chateaubriand, and Karl Marx. The contributors investigate how tragic myth, personal memoir, and political commentary serve as methods for conceptualizing the past. Readers interested in the intersection of philosophy and historiography may find it relevant to consider how these specific authors transformed their observations into an engagement with the progression of time.