Cioran et la France. L’exil d’un nihiliste au pays de l’Intelligence

In 1937, Cioran aged 26, arrived in France in order to prepare a thesis in philosophy, however it never materialized. He never imagined that his stay in Paris would be permanent and last for more than half a century. Unpredictable historical events that took place led to Cioran’s unexpected possible miraculous destiny in France. His passionate and relentless desire to exclusively use the French language in his writings brought about a complete internal migration, similar to a religious conversion. Though he never gave up on his metaphysical obsessions, during his stay in France Cioran’s despair relieved itself of its enraged tone. This distance he took from his home country, that dear Romania he both despised and loved, caused the essayist to part with this aggressive nationalism and his enthusiasm for the totalitarian state of Germany. France would enable him to fulfill his transformation, from a barbarian mind – thereby alluding to an image he very much appreciated in his youth – to a frivolous civilised man, a hermit with no illusions nor convictions, at the core of a declining Western civilisation.