La formule “esprit européen” dans les actes du colloque “L’Avenir de l’esprit européen” organisé par la Société des Nations en 1933

This paper analyses the expression “esprit européen”, which circulated in the public debate between the two World Wars when several politicians and authors were engaged in designing a united Europe. This expression appears to be a “formule linguistique” (Krieg-Planque 2003) through which a number of representations of Europe took form, acquiring multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings. We will examine the corpus of speeches given by the politicians and writers who participated at the symposium organized by the League of Nations in Paris in 1933, and which was dedicated to the “Future of the European spirit”. Taking both a lexical and discourse analytical approaches, we will identify the meanings and variations of this expression, as well as the debate around it.