Fouerism, journalism and literature in the midst of monarchy of July

The Fourieristes and their leader Victor Considerant saw newspapers as a crucial means of disseminating propaganda. Through close study of their publication, La Phalange (1836-1843), it is possible to demonstrate that some among them (in particular Eugene d'Izalguier and Desire Laverdant) took up the question of literature and attempted to assign it a specialized role; they were convinced that literature had a social mission to accomplish. Victor Considerant did not intervene directly on this question in the columns of the newspaper, but he ensured that journalism took precedence over literature; it was above all through literary criticism that La Phalange addressed literature. The terms of the question remained largely the same when La Democratie pacifique became the successor to La Phalange.