Dictionaries define the noun intellectuel as a person devoted by profession or taste to the exercise of intelligence, to the life of the mind. Yet the word - in both French and English - has a more specific meaning that, while widely recognised, almost never makes it into these definitions: that of a person of recognised intellectual attainments who speaks out in the public arena, generally in ways that call established society or dominant ideologies to account in the name of principle or on behalf of the oppressed.

This more pointed definition of the intellectual must be given pride of place in a chapter such as this one, which obviously cannot begin to cover all the French-language intellectual contributions of the twentieth century, or attempt a synthesis of philosophic, scientific, linguistic, literary, aesthetic, sociological and anthropological thought. At the same time, the porous boundaries between the different definitions of the intellectual make it impossible to remain solely within this canonical perspective. At times philosophic, literary or scholarly work by itself has sufficient impact to give its authors a role in public life. Perhaps more disconcertingly, the public intervention of the intellectual on behalf of a cause has become a stereotypic act that can seemingly be performed (or mimicked, purists would say) by individuals who lack the imprimatur of their peers as legitimate contributors to the life of the mind: entertainers, celebrities or essayists not esteemed within the intellectual community.