Tatu Laurent, Roynette Odile, Bogousslavsky Julien
Front Neurol Neurosci. 2018;43:23-36. doi: 10.1159/000490401. Epub 2018 Oct 18.
The writer Louis Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) developed a personal style which changed twentieth century French literature. As an enlisted soldier in 1912, he was involved in the Great War and his right arm was severely wounded. After the war, he became a medical doctor and a writer who published his first novel, Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night), in 1932. In the middle of the 1930s, he began to write anti-Semitic and racist pamphlets and turned to a collaborationist stance with Nazi Germany. After the Second World War, he was declared a national disgrace in France and fled to Denmark. In 1951, he was granted amnesty and went back to France, where he regained fame with his last three novels. Céline was a First World War neurologically wounded soldier who received a severe injury in the right arm leading to a radial nerve paralysis. Furthermore, in his texts and letters, he complained of many symptoms that he considered to be related to the First World War. In reality, to build a heroic image of himself, Céline rewrote his personal First World War history, in particular his war wounds. The aim of this reconstruction was to help him achieve literary fame. At the end of the Second World War, he also used this rewriting to organise his defence when he was accused and tried for collaborationism. Using medical and military archives, Céline's First World War medical mythology is reviewed to distinguish facts from fiction concerning his wound and other war neurological disturbances. We present the history of his radial nerve lesion and surgery, and confirm that Céline was never trepanned. Two other controversial neurological points, his left ear disease and his possible shell shock, are also discussed.
作家路易·费迪南·塞利纳（1894 - 1961）形成了一种改变了20世纪法国文学的个人风格。1912年，作为一名应征士兵，他参与了第一次世界大战，右臂受了重伤。战后，他成为了一名医生和作家，并于1932年出版了他的第一部小说《长夜行》。20世纪30年代中期，他开始撰写反犹主义和种族主义小册子，并转向与纳粹德国合作的立场。第二次世界大战后，他在法国被宣布为民族耻辱并逃到了丹麦。1951年，他获得大赦回到法国，在那里他凭借最后三部小说重新获得声誉。塞利纳是一名在第一次世界大战中神经受伤的士兵，右臂受了重伤导致桡神经麻痹。此外，在他的文本和信件中，他抱怨了许多他认为与第一次世界大战有关的症状。实际上，为了塑造自己的英雄形象，塞利纳改写了他个人的第一次世界大战历史，尤其是他的战争创伤。这种重构的目的是帮助他获得文学声誉。第二次世界大战结束时，当他因叛国罪被指控和审判时，他也利用这种改写来组织自己的辩护。利用医学和军事档案，对塞利纳的第一次世界大战医学神话进行了审视，以区分关于他的伤口和其他战争神经紊乱的事实与虚构。我们呈现了他桡神经损伤和手术的历史，并证实塞利纳从未接受过开颅手术。还讨论了另外两个有争议的神经学问题，他的左耳疾病和可能的炮弹休克。
