Repurposing l’art épistolaire

In the preface to Les Belles lettres (1961), Charlotte Delbo argues that l’art épistolaire reclaims significance through contemporary political events. Letterwriting becomes a mode of indignation previously expressed through political parties, protests, and collective action at the turn of the twentieth century. In Les Belles lettres, Delbo curates a selection of letters featuring testimony about the Algerian War, selected primarily from Le Monde, but also from political journals such as Les Temps modernes and Vérité-Liberté. Interspersing biting commentary, Delbo condemns French imperialism in Algeria and critiques comparisons to the Holocaust, Vichy France, and Nazi Germany. She democratizes the epistolary genre to amplify voices and testimonies that are often silenced or censored because of race, gender identity, political affiliation, religion, and socio-economic status. Delbo’s subversion of belles lettres is an act of civil disobedience. Letter-writing disrupts the political discourse by channeling le bruit des femmes.