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| From left: John Agnoloni, Giuseppe and Massimo Panella Sestili |
Sentence whatever
Massimo Sestili
My interest in this novel "abnormal" by Verne, as defined by Panella in his essay, is due to an occasional fact of all: the first Italian translation of the publisher Chiantore of 1949 was titled A miscarriage of justice . A report this "anomaly" was Panella in his afterword to my book on ' affaire Dreyfus, titled The miscarriage of justice.
As a student of ' Dreyfus Affair and the French Third Republic, I am particularly interested in the transformation of a "chance" of justice in a " affaire " political. The distinction is crucial: Just in front of a devastating miscarriage of justice, the "case" justice is confined within the classroom by a court, and involves the individual charged with its dearest affections, on the contrary, l 'affaire leaves the courtroom of the court per investire l’intera società e diventa politico. L’ affaire è sempre politico in quanto si connota come un processo politico-ideologico che può originarsi da diverse cause; ad esempio una motivazione nazionalista e razziale come nel caso di Dimitri Nicolev nel romanzo di Jules Verne Un dramma in Livonia , o antisemita, come nel caso di Alfred Dreyfus, o religioso come nel caso di Jean Calas, ma queste diverse cause rispondono comunque ad un unico principio: l’uso della forza al posto del diritto per la conservazione del potere posseduto da alcuni settori della società.
How wonderfully recalls Anatole France in his Apologia President Bourriche : "Disarming the strong and the weak arm, would change the social order that is my job to keep. Justice is the penalty of injustice established. You never see the opposite to be contrary to the conquerors and usurpers? When you establish an illegitimate power, only has to recognize that to make it legitimate. Everything is in form, between crime and innocence, and there is only the thickness of a sheet of paper stamped " [1] .
Christian and Protestants in the case of Voltaire, finance Catholic and Jewish finance in the Third Republic of France; German minority and majority Slavs in Livonia .
In summary, I would say that in any judicial affair can be traced back a few constants:
1. the involvement of the press (with a protagonist of the Catholic press at times gruesome, violent offenders and sided with the front in the business as anti-Semitic Dreyfus);
2. the deployment of public opinion in innocent and guilty (opinione formata ad arte dalla stampa per lo più forcaiola; vedi le critiche di Zola);
3. il coinvolgimento dei diversi schieramenti politici (destra/sinistra; anche in questo caso con alcune costanti: la destra colpevolista e la sinistra innocentista; conflitti nazionali);
4. il coinvolgimento degli intellettuali (prima individualmente: Voltaire; successivamente come categoria sociale: Zola).
Sempre, ci troviamo di fronte ad un uso politico della giustizia . Questa è la mia tesi centrale: Un dramma in Livonia can also be read as a novel use of political justice, which is part of the rich French tradition that began with Voltaire and that affected the climate of general crisis of the French Third Republic brought to the surface by ' affaire Dreyfus.
also to influence the literature, rather than the "case" justice has been the 'affaire political: it is a clear example of the' Dreyfus affair that has inspired many modern writers and contemporary, creating a real literary genre.
The miscarriage of justice as a disturbing symptom of a deep pathology that alberga nella società o, più in generale, come prodromo di una crisi della politica, è al centro degli interessi di Verne negli ultimi anni della sua vita. Sia la vicenda giudiziaria al centro del romanzo I fratelli Kip del 1902, che quella di Nicolef (Un dramma in Livonia è del 1904), si ispirano chiaramente all’ affaire Dreyfus, il caso che sconvolse la Francia per ben dodici anni (ed oltre) tra la fine dell’800 e gli inizi del ‘900: un affaire in cui anche Jules Verne, al pari di tanti altri scrittori che si trasformarono in intellettuali schierandosi apertamente per l’innocenza o la colpevolezza di Dreyfus, prese posizione.
***
Struggles national
Set in Riga, one of the most important and populous cities of the Baltic Provinces, Livonia A drama is the story of a miscarriage of justice that involves, on one hand and the professor Dimitri Nicolef Yanof Wladimir, a lawyer from Moscow originally deported for political reasons in the mines of eastern Siberia, both Slavic and on the other, the bankers and Johausen Kroff, both from Germany. The central action of the drama takes place in 1876, when the national struggles between the Slavic majority population and la minoranza tedesca si sono particolarmente acuite.
Il problema dei movimenti nazionali non è casuale, ma appare con una certa regolarità nei romanzi di Jules Verne e, la particolare cura che lo scrittore dedica al contesto di Un dramma in Livonia , è indicativa di questo particolare interesse. Come afferma Chesneaux:
Nei romanzi di Verne le lotte nazionali non sono solamente una cornice che rende più viva l’azione o un pittoresco elemento storico. Sono il nucleo stesso dell’azione. I movimenti nazionalistici determinano il carattere dei personaggi e il senso della loro vita, le situazioni psicologiche, il ritmo stesso dell’opera. Un dramma in Livonia è un racconto poliziesco, la storia di un errore giudiziario, l’accusato è uno slavo e la presunta vittima un impiegato di una delle più grosse banche tedesche di Riga: tutto l’affare ha un’intensa colorazione politica [2] .
Sia le ostilità nazionali tra slavi e tedeschi, che l’antisemitismo, sono originati da conflitti sociali ed economici dovuti alle disuguaglianze tra la minoranza tedesca, che detiene il potere economico e politico, e la grande maggioranza dei contadini slavi che vivono in una miseria indicibile.
Il nationalism and a strong aversion to Germany, which surround the French society after the defeat of Sedan (1870), issues are already widely present in French literature and Jules Verne, from this point of view is no exception, although the initial anti-British sentiment, as it Kip Brothers, present in his novels will be replaced by an anti-German sentiment.
Antonio Gramsci in national life and literature writes: "You can see how the overall production of each country is implied a sense of nationalism, expressed not rhetorically, but cleverly insinuated in the story. In Verne and the French anti-British sentiment, related to the loss of the colonies and the stinging defeat of the sea is very much alive: in the novel geographical adventure, the French do not clash with the Germans, but with the British. But the anti-British sentiment is also alive in the historical novel and even sentimental (eg. George Sand; reaction to the Hundred Years War and the murder of Joan of Arc, and by the end of Napoleon) " [3 ] .
few lines later Gramsci adds a critical note: "In the" Marzocco "of February 19, 1928, Adolfo Beech ( Impressions by Jules Verne ) writes that the anti-British character of many of Verne's novels is back to that period of rivalry between France and England that culminated in the episode of Fashoda. The assertion is incorrect and anachronistic: the antibritannicismo was (and perhaps still is) a cornerstone of French popular psychology; the anti-German is relatively recent, and was less rooted dell'antibritannicismo, did not exist before the French Revolution and was gangrenous after '70, after the defeat and the painful impression that France was not the most powerful nation and military policy in Western Europe, because Germany alone, not in the coalition, won France. The anti-British from the formation of modern France, as a unitary state and modern, that is, the Hundred Years' War and the reflection of the popular epic of Joan of Arc, has been reinforced by modern wars for hegemony on the continent (and worldwide), culminating in the French Revolution and Napoleon: the Fashoda incident, with all its gravity, can not be compared to this grand tradition that is evidenced by all the popular literature French [4] .
Gramsci had read perfectly the mood of the French with its inevitable echoes and in the literary field.
The national struggles in the Baltic provinces el 'affaire Dimitri Nicolef can therefore Jules Verne to express a patriotic feeling of widespread hatred for Germany and at the same time to defend the just rights and national aspirations of the oppressed majority Slav in the name of those universal values \u200b\u200bon which modern France.
However, the feeling is that the novel manages to go beyond the Baltic context, transforming the representation of a political struggle that is spreading to the whole Europe and will lead to the catastrophe of the First World War.
***
Jules Verne had already affected the problem with the novel The Brothers Kip , where he dwells at length on the Irish national problem (Chapter X, The Fenian ), giving particular emphasis to fact that the deportees are two Irish O'Brien and Macarthy political prisoners and common murderers (the exact same comment appears in a drama in Livonia about Wladimir Yanof). Another episode that certainly shows a particular sensitivity of Jules Verne to the national demands. And yet, even brothers Kip is a novel whose plot is a miscarriage of justice. The two brothers are unjustly accused of the assassination of the English captain Harry Gibson, but the real murderers are able to create clues that lead to the conviction of two brothers.
public opinion, prompted by a guilty press calls for the death penalty:
From the depths of their prison, the accused would never have imagined how far public opinion was against them, constantly solicited by the press with articles of incredible violence [5] .
The people crowded the hall and the nearby streets. Cries for revenge when the defendants welcomed uscirono dal carcere. Soltanto allora essi poterono stringersi la mano, subito divisi dagli agenti che dovevano proteggerli dalla folla durante il tragitto fino al palazzo di giustizia. I due fratelli compresero allora che non avevano nulla da sperare da parte dell’opinione pubblica.
La condanna [a morte] ebbe subito il risultato di dare soddisfazione alla popolazione di Hobart Town. Nell’odio generale per gli assassini, c’era gran parte di quell’egoismo caratteristico dei popoli anglosassoni, che non vuole controprove. L’assassinato era un inglese; e stranieri, olandesi, erano quelli che l’avevano ucciso. In presenza di tale delitto, chi avrebbe mai osato, aver pietà for murderers? Therefore no one from the public and not just one of many newspapers in Tasmania raised his voice in order to obtain the commutation of the sentence.
The context that leads to a sure death sentence of the brothers Kip, with extraordinary clarity described by Jules Verne, is a clear recovery of the climate that led to the conviction of Dreyfus. First, the role played by the press in creating public opinion, guilty and, accordingly, the unanimity of opinions, and finally the feeling of hatred against the alleged perpetrators, which is unleashed even before the verdict.
the review process are recognized innocent brothers Kip and rehabilitated. Immediately change the public opinion.
Jules Verne novels with these two shows to be able to read and anticipate not only the great discoveries of science and technology, but also the political and social conflicts and to grasp the transformation of the idea of \u200b\u200bnation as an aspiration to freedom in a violent and belligerent nationalism. The inability to do justice by condemning real culprit, the mere possibility that a miscarriage of justice can take place, both in the case of the brothers Kip Nicolef that seem to prefigure French writer for the political crisis of liberalism and the Enlightenment, that agonizing under the blows of an increasingly bellicose imperialist nationalism.
If Chesneaux as Jean says, the interest of Jules Verne to the national struggles is not random, it is not a major reason for the miscarriage of justice, as one part of the writer's involvement in the clash that occurs among intellectuals in France after the public denunciation by Émile Zola, and, secondly, the tradition of French writers to be interested directly in issues related to justice and politics.
Jules Verne, attraverso il dramma personale di Dimitri Nicolef e della sua famiglia, nonché dell’intera comunità slava, esplora la trasformazione di un caso giudiziario in un affaire politico. Nicolef è chiaramente innocente, ma il potere, che in questo caso coincide con gli interessi della minoranza tedesca in Livonia, ha bisogno della sua colpevolezza, e monta una campagna di stampa contro il professore per plasmare un’opinione pubblica colpevolista che non esita a scagliarsi contro il malcapitato.
In assenza di un movente forte e di prove certe, si preferisce negare la presunzione d’innocenza e lo stato di diritto pur di avere a culprit, a scapegoat to be sacrificed in order to avoid a policy change that would restore freedom and dignity to the Slavic majority, but would have irremediably compromised the supremacy of the German minority. To achieve this, the Johausen and groups of economic and military power, shall ensure that the case come out of the courtroom and be transformed into a political struggle between innocent and guilty, that is, between Germans and Slavs.
judicial Nicolef The story is the paradigm of justice denied, as it is instrumentally used for the preservation of the power of the strongest. Processes is not a man on the basis of rules of law, but in Nicolef si tenta di processare la maggioranza slava.
***
Susan Rubin Suleiman, nel suo ottimo saggio Il significato dell’Affare Dreyfus per la letteratura [6] , si interessa della rappresentazione dell’ affaire Dreyfus nella letteratura francese tralasciando completamente questi due romanzi di Jules Verne. Eppure, nello studio dei “rapporti tra storia e finzione letteraria, e tra la realtà e le sue possibili (o impossibili) rappresentazioni”, a noi risulta piuttosto evidente che questi lavori di Jules Verne facciano continue e insistenti allusioni all’ affaire Dreyfus e come, conseguentemente, rientrino nella categoria della trasposizione letteraria: “Nella trasposizione, il racconto è realistico, ma è offerto al lettore in modo tale che la stretta somiglianza con un’«altra» storia risulti evidente, purché il lettore abbia familiarità con quest’ultima. La storia esplicita apparirà insomma un semplice pretesto, un alibi (nel senso latino di un «altrove») per l’espressione della storia nascosta”. Certamente, nei due romanzi esaminati la trama del testo non induce affatto a vedervi una automatica trasposizione which, however, we find in the whole context in which the action takes place and the motivations of the characters.
A drama in Livonia marks a step forward in the reflection of Jules Verne judicial error, and seems to catch a glimpse behind the shocking death of Professor Nicolef mild, a deep pessimism, which I The Brothers Kip , is tempered in part by a happy ending. With l 'affaire Nicolef everything seems to change quickly and the remaining hope in the justice seem to vanish altogether. A pessimism that makes one see the background of political crisis when Jules Verne, and this is the very fundamental question, we compare with the transformation of a simple court case in a affair with strong political connotations. Transformation made possible, in particular, the role played by printing executioners that despite serious doubts procedural and lack of a motive and evidence, helps to shape public opinion offenders who shouted voice an exemplary sentence. At this point, the battle moves from the halls of justice in the streets turning into a political conflict that involves the whole nation and endanger the institutions: the problem is not what to bring to justice the guilty, but which of the two political parties in the fight will prevail. Condemning Dreyfus wants to condemn the Jews and their leadership in finance, and hit the republican institutions, condemning Nicolef, the German minority wants to scuttle the national claims of the Slavs and to oppose the policy of Russification of the Tsar.
The effect caused by the shift from judicial to the political field is disruptive: it is canceled, or otherwise impeded in any way possible, the independence of judges, through a heavy conditioning of its decisions. The history of courtroom drama of Nicolef, is therefore also highlight the plight of the balanced Kerstorf court, put under pressure in its investigations on the orientation Colonel and General Raguenof Gorka on the one hand, and the sergeant major Verder and Eck on the other. It is essentially impossible for the drama of a justice to be truly just when it is hindered by other interests, be they military, religious, racial or political.
Jules Verne, A Drama in Livonia with , complains in a completely clear the danger from similar habits and appalling judicial in France, following the example of Voltaire and his affaire Calas, were already been reported by Bernard Lazare about Dreyfus, "What is more amazing is that all the men jealous of propria indipendenza e che si dicono liberi accettino simili violazioni della libertà e sopportino che si possa così, attentando al diritto altrui, attentare alla propria persona ed ai propri diritti” [7] . Pertanto, la negazione della giustizia è il sintomo di un profondo attacco alle libertà e, nel caso di Nicolef, un attentato alle libertà e ai diritti dell’intera collettività slava.
A Jules Verne va riconosciuto (nonostante la sua adesione allo schieramento antidreyfusard , che tra le altre cose si connotava per un violento antisemitismo) il merito di aver fatto entrare con I fratelli Kip e Un Drama in Livonia the miscarriage of justice or, more generally, the problem of justice in the literature. L 'affaire , from these early literary experiences, it becomes a real kind that allows the modern intellectual engagé to enter the labyrinthine administration of justice, and to take an active part in social and political confrontation that each affaire behind. A tradition through Crainquebille Anatole France, Redureau The case of Andre Gide, Mauritius The case of Jakob Wassermann, The deal Dominici Jean Giono, Context and L'affaire Moro Leonardo Sciascia, comes down to our days. All cases of miscarriages of justice, or misuse of justice, who have admirably shown how there can be no freedom without justice we know is right and denounced the barbarity of a judicial process that is seeking by every means to find a guilty self-proclaimed infallible. The vibrant words of protest uttered by Bernard Lazare in 1896, Verne knew that very well, are in this sense a model:
"Each individual process becomes general: similar barbaric judicial methods should no longer exist in a free country. It is not possible now that one morning he can stop a man, isolated from the world, stifle the voice, condemned in a closed secret, without anything out of what or who defends the accused can not be known. It affects the freedom of all citizens because of the atrocious way in which someone is judged, and defend only a means to defend them all. I have defended Captain Dreyfus, but I also defended the justice and freedom " [8] .
Faced with numerous cases of injustice, the question always remains current by Maurice Nadeau, "But who will judge the judges?".
[1] Anatole France, Crainquebille , trad. di Roberto Tinti, Sellerio, Palermo 1992, pp. 36-37.
[2] Jean Chesneaux, Una lettura politica di Jules Verne , trad. di Eliana Martora, Mozzi, Milano 1976, p. 64.
[3] Antonio Gramsci, Letteratura e vita nazionale , Einaudi, Torino 1966, p. 111.
[4] Ivi, p. 114.
[5] Tutte le citazioni sono tratte da: Jules Verne, I fratelli Kip , trad. di Vincenzo Brinzi, Edizione integrale delle opere di Jules Verne, Milano, Mursia 1983.
[6] Susan Rubin Suleiman, Il significato dell’Affare Dreyfus per la letteratura , in L’Affare Dreyfus. La storia l’opinione l’immagine , a cura di Norman L. Kleeblatt, Boringhieri Bollati, Torino 1990, pp. 183-223.
[7] Bernard Lazare, L'affaire Dreyfus . a miscarriage of justice, edited by Paul Fountain, Faenza, Mobydick 2001, p.22.
[8] Bernard Lazare, op. cit., p. 84.
