Défense de la France entre 1941 et 1944 : une réponse au discours extrémiste sous l’Occupation = Défense de la France between 1941 and 1944: a response to the extremist discourse during the Occupation

This study aims to analyse the response to the extremist discourse of the German occupier by the clandestine resistance periodical Défense de la France of which forty-two issues published between 1941 and 1944 are considered. For the first time, a clandestine periodical is analysed by means of close reading and computational techniques, through which it is possible to identify discourse elements related to the key words Allemand(s), allemande(s) and Allemagne. The analysis focuses on the rhetorical strategies employed to consolidate a resistant community by reinforcing positions against the adversary, understood as occupier and as German in general. Through the study of the (counter-)propaganda techniques employed in the discourse, it is observed how Défense de la France combats extremist discourse by means of an equally extremist discourse based on anti-Germanism and Germanophobia.