Fabriktagebuch und andere Schriften zum Industriesystem

by Simone Weil

Le note diaristiche tracciate da Simone Weil su un quaderno nei mesi della sua esperienza come operaia tra 1934 e 1935 non erano destinate alla pubblicazione. Edite postume nel 1951, fecero da premessa a una raccolta di saggi e lettere sulla condizione operaia. Tale scelta ha tuttavia condizionato la lettura del "Diario di fabbrica", riducendolo a pura registrazione del vissuto dell'autrice o a mero documento sull'oppressione subita dagli operai, e ne ha intralciato la percezione come opera narrativa di straordinario valore artistico per forma e contenuti. Questo è l'intento con cui lo si ripropone in una nuova traduzione arricchita da un apparato di note che fa luce sul contesto storico e sulle procedure di lavoro nell'industria dei primi decenni del XX secolo.

Genres: Womens, Nonfiction

247 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 1991

About the author

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist. Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Her brilliance, ascetic lifestyle, introversion, and eccentricity limited her ability to mix with others, but not to teach and participate in political movements of her time. She wrote extensively with both insight and breadth about political movements of which she was a part and later about spiritual mysticism. Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range".

Reviews

[Virginia]

Il y a les gens qui ont lu ce livre et puis ceux qui sont pro-réforme des retraites.

[Dawid]

"The effect of exhaustion is to make me forget my real reasons for spending time in the factory, and to make it almost impossible for me to overcome the strongest temptation that this life entails: that of not thinking anymore, which is the one and only way of not suffering from it. It's only on Saturday afternoon and Sunday that a few memories and shreds of ideas return to me, and I remember that I am also a thinking being. The terror that takes hold of me when I realize how dependent I am on external circumstances: all that would be needed is for circumstances someday to force me to work at a job without a weekly rest—which after all is always possible—and I would become a beast of burden, docile and resigned (at least for me). Only the feeling of brotherhood, and outrage in the face of injustices inflicted on others, remain intact—but how long would all that last? I am almost ready to conclude that the salvation of a worker's soul depends primarily on his physical constitution. I don't see how those who are not physically strong can avoid falling into some form of despair drunkenness, or vagabondage, or crime, or debauchery, or simply (and far more often) brutishness—(and religion ?). Revolt is impossible, except for momentary flashes (I mean even as a feeling)."

"In spite of my fatigue, I am so in need of fresh air that I go on foot as far as the Seine; there I sit on the bank, on a stone, gloomy, exhausted, my heart gripped by impotent rage, feeling drained of all my vital substance; I wonder if, in the event that I were condemned to live this life, I would be able to cross the Seine every day without someday throwing myself in."

! REAL !

[LunaSanguine]

Das Tagebuch selbst fand ich etwas zäh, auch wegen vieler Berechnungen mit damaligem französischen Geld, die mir einfach wenig sagen. Das Tagebuch macht aber nur 1/3 des Buchs aus, die Briefe fand ich deutlich lesenswerter - kein Wunder, hinter denen steckte ja auch tatsächlich eine kommunikative Absicht. Zu der Thematik sicher ein weit überdurchschnittlich zugängliches und lebendiges Buch.

[Schulz Quentin]

« Quand je pense que les grands chefs
bolcheviks prétendaient créer une classe
ouvrière libre et qu’aucun d’entre eux –
Trotsky sûrement pas, Lénine je ne crois
pas non plus – n’avait sans doute mis le
pied dans une usine et par suite n’avait
la plus faible idée des conditions réelles
qui déterminent la servitude ou la
liberté pour les ouvriers. »

du chaud ce que tu me proposes Simone, à enchaîner avec La Condition Ouvrière

[echokodoma]

Through her practical experience, Weil gained insight into the most numb and humiliating state of workers: the deprivation of their sense of dignity. While the book's descriptions are somewhat loose, its viewpoints remain relevant today. She emphasizes the importance of focus, suggesting that people can only try to find poetry in their work to dispel numbness.

[Julia]

Bah c'était chiant mais intéressant

[mehdy]

Il est très difficile de mettre une note... sur des prises de notes. On suit Simone Weil à travers ses différentes trépidations dans différentes usines, mais la réflexion sur la condition ouvrière n'arrive véritablement qu'à la fin : épuisée par le travail, Weil n'a pas vraiment le temps, ni la force de réfléchir au fur et à mesure sur sa situation et les compagnons rencontrés sur la route. Il est tout de même assez marrant de voir que la détestation de certaines personnes transparaît autant dans si peu de mots décrits.

Sans le vouloir peut-être - ou en le voulant si cela se trouve - Weil prouve que la classe ouvrière n'est pas uniforme : les contremaîtres ne sont pas les amis des manœuvres spécialisés, qui ne sont pas non plus les amis des tourneurs et tourneuses, la place la moins bien positionnée dans l'échelle sociale de l'entreprise. Un livre essentiel, mais dont il faut bien prendre en compte le caractère "immédiat", Weil écrivant au fur et à mesure son expérience en usine.