"La réception des travaux scouts de Pierre Bovet en France (1912–décennie 1930)"
Résumé
French scouting has never seen an authentic model in Robert Baden-Powell. When they were founded in 1911, the Eclaireurs de France (Boy-Scouts of France) did not want to translate Scouting for Boys. Because of their nationalism, they published their own manual. The translation came from Switzerland thanks to the work of the philosopher Pierre Bovet. French-speaking Switzerland was the crossroads of British pedagogical texts translated into French that French scouts rejected. Scouting for Boys was translated by Bovet and published by Delachaux et Niestlé. This was possible because of the former camping practices of the Young Men’s Christian Association, of which Bovet was a member. However, Bovet’s scout translation arrived in France thanks to pedagogues such as Georges Bertier and Georges Gallienne, fighters for New Education and social reformers. The situation changed in the 1920s because of the Eclaireurs’ engagement in the world scout organisation, which was under the leadership of the scouts’ founder Baden-Powell. Publishers Delachaux et Niestlé opened a branch in Paris in 1919. The publishers engaged several other translators, all Swiss scout chiefs, such as Ketty Jentzer or Jean Carrard. They translated Baden-Powell and Lady Baden-Powell’s books on games, knots, wolf cubs, rover scouts and girl scouts. These books were in each French scoutmaster’s library. In 1920, Bovet wrote his scouting master-book, Le Génie de Baden-Powell (Baden-Powell’s Genius), which analysed scouting education according to New Education. But other borders appeared. French scout associations did not need Swiss translations because they published their own works in the 1930s. The border was any scholarly analysis of their project. French scouts worked with philosophers (Edmond Goblot and Pierre Mendousse), principally on social questions that Bovet’s books did not mention. French scouts wanted to distance their marvellous pedagogic universe from scientific works. For the French scoutmasters, Bovet’s work became commonplace. Linguistic borders were opened or closed according to the actors and were recombined within different boundaries.
Le scoutisme français n’a pas toujours vu Baden-Powell comme un modèle. A leur fondation en 1911, les Eclaireurs de France refusent de traduire Scouting for boys. Mais, le philosophe genevois Pierre Bovet le traduit dès 1912 pour l’éditeur neuchâtelois Delachaux et Niestlé. Le texte anglais arrive en France malgré le nationalisme des Eclaireurs qui le maintient dans un purgatoire sévère. La traduction est saluée par un réformateur social comme Georges Bertier, directeur de l’Ecole des Roches. Dès 1921, celui-ci préside les Eclaireurs et les ancre dans l’Education nouvelle. En 1919, l’éditeur Delachaux et Niestlé a ouvert une succursale dans la capitale française. L’essor des traductions scoutes est contemporain, notamment par des cadres suisses, tels Ketty Jentzer, commissaire genevoise ou Jean Carrard, chef à Lausanne. Mais, alors qu’en 1920, Bovet écrit son livre-maître Le Génie de Baden-Powell où il analyse cette pédagogie au prisme de l’Education nouvelle, d’autres frontières émergent. Les Français qui possèdent leurs propres travaux, ont moins besoin des traductions suisses. La frontière se recompose selon une autre ligne, l’étude savante. Les Français travaillent avec des philosophes comme Edmond Goblot et Pierre Mendousse autour de la question sociale, objet absent chez Bovet. Les Français défendent le merveilleux pédagogique au détriment de l’analyse savante pouvant le mettre en cause. Bovet demeure un simple passeur. Le scoutisme ouvre et ferme les frontières, recombinées selon les modalités propres à chaque époque