Marcel Bataillon facts for kids
Marcel Édouard Bataillon (born in Dijon, France, on May 20, 1895 – died in Paris, France, on June 4, 1977) was a French expert on Spanish culture and history. He was especially interested in the ideas and beliefs of Spain during the 1500s.
Marcel Bataillon's Journey
Marcel Bataillon started his studies in 1913 at a famous school called the École Normale Supérieure. After that, he spent time in Madrid, Spain, at a school focused on Spanish studies. During World War I, from 1916 to 1919, he served as a lieutenant in the French army. These experiences made him a strong believer in pacifism, which means he believed in solving problems peacefully, without war.
While living in Spain, he grew to love Spanish culture very much. In 1920, he passed his national exams to teach Spanish. He then taught at the University of Lisbon in Portugal, followed by a high school in Bordeaux, France. Later, he taught at the University of Algiers in Algeria. In 1936, he even ran for election there as a candidate for the Popular Front, a group of left-wing political parties.
He later moved to the Sorbonne, a well-known university in Paris. There, he became a professor of Spanish Language and Literature. From 1934 to 1939, he was part of a group called the "Comité de Vigilance des Intellectuels Antifascistes." This group worked to oppose fascism, a type of strict government. Because of his beliefs, he was briefly held in a camp called Royallieu-Compiègne internment camp in 1941.
Marcel Bataillon stayed at the Sorbonne until 1945. Then, he moved to the Collège de France, another very important French institution. He became the head of the department for "Languages and Literatures of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin-America." He held this important job for twenty years. From 1955 to 1965, he was also the Administrator of the college, which is like being its main leader. In 1964, he became a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Today, the Iberoamerican studies library at the Sorbonne is named after him. In 1972, a special teaching position, the Marcel Bataillon Professorship, was created at the University of North Carolina in the United States. He also received the Alfonso Reyes International Prize in 1974, which is a big honor for writers and scholars.
Marcel Bataillon's Books
Marcel Bataillon wrote many important books about Spanish history and literature. Here are some of his well-known works:
- La Celestine Selon Fernando de Rojas, Marcel Didier (1961)
- Novedad y Fecundidad del Lazarillo de Tormes, Anaya (1973) ISBN: 84-207-0933-6
- El Padre Las Casas y la Defensa de los Indios, Ariel (1976) ISBN: 84-344-0755-8
- La Vie de Lazarillo de Tormès, Flammarion (1993) ISBN: 2-08-070646-2
- Erasmo y España: Estudios Sobre la Historia Espiritual del Siglo XVI, Fondo de Cultura Económica (1997) ISBN: 968-16-1069-5 (French: Erasme et l'Espagne, Librairie Droz (1998) ISBN: 2-600-00510-2) This book, first published in 1937, is considered his most important work. It took him seventeen years to write and is almost a thousand pages long! It became much more famous after it was translated into Spanish in 1950.
- Les Jésuites dans l’Espagne du XVIe Siècle, preface by Gilles Bataillon, Belles Lettres (2009) ISBN: 2-251-38096-5
See also
In Spanish: Marcel Bataillon para niños
