استفاده از سوءاستفاده: جدل‌های ماجرای درایفوس و پیامدهای آن

Analyzes the quite similar rhetorical devices used by anti-Dreyfusards and Dreyfusards. Points out that antisemitism was only one theme in the polemics, and that there were antisemites who were Dreyfusards and Jews who were on the opposing side. The anti-Dreyfusards accused a Jewish "Syndicat" of plotting to free Dreyfus; the Dreyfusards suspected an antisemitic and anti-Republican Jesuit plot. Anti-Dreyfusards freely used antisemitic epithets, often comparing Jews to animals; but Dreyfusards also used them when attacking Jewish anti-Dreyfusards such as Arthur Meyer. Urbain Gohier, a left-wing antisemite, supported the Dreyfusard cause because it was antimilitary and anti-clerical; he accused the anti-Dreyfusards of being in league with Jewish capital. Among the writers analyzed in greater detail is Emile Zola, who refuted the "Syndicat" allegation and wrote a series of articles against the antisemitic passions released by the Affair. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism) In this book, which closely examines the techniques used by the polemists of the Dreyfus Affair, much is learned not only about the Mair itself, but also about the polemic of the age in which it was situated, and the interaction between writers and their public. The discourse within which people's thoughts were imprisoned is seen not merely to have reflected events, but to have created them, in an increasingly vicious circle whereby the language of popular abuse, incorporated into the written polemic of the Press, produced simple but distorted ideas which in turn were fed back into the people. The age's complete lack of concern for the libel laws led to particularly vivid examples of the art. We are shown how authors'shifts in vocabulary, and in stylistic techniques, unconsciously signal to us fundamental changes in their aims; and how, in the give-and-take of battle, words and concepts subtly changed their meaning, with certain abstract notions such as Truth and Justice becoming completely devalued.