The Dreyfus Affair: between literature, social sciences, and medical sciences

Frédéric Keck

Chapter 3 in The Elgar Companion to Émile Durkheim, 2026, pp 40-57 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter situates Durkheim's thought within the political and scientific debates around the Dreyfus Affair by introducing the often-overlooked role played by Lévy-Bruhl. It shows that if Zola and Durkheim approached these debates from the concept of sacrifice to orient it in different directions through literature and sociology, Lévy-Bruhl approached it through the notion of the sentinel, starting from Dreyfus’ experience and relying on the political action of French socialist leader Jean Jaurès in the defense of Dreyfus. Lévy-Bruhl intervened in the first closed-door trial against Dreyfus in 1894 as a moral witness; Zola and Jaurès intervened to defend him in 1898. The long sequence of the Dreyfus Affair thus must be recapitulated in order to understand how it sheds light on the works of Durkheimian sociology based on the political and scientific debates of the time.

Keywords: Justice; Responsibility; Sacrifice; Victim; Sentinel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035322923
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