Therese Mager is a PhD researcher at the Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe) at Leipzig University. She is currently researching right-wing “populism” in contemporary France, with a particular focus on far-right political actors and their transnational networks. She graduated with a joint M.A. in Global Studies from Ghent University and Leipzig University in 2019. Originally from the United States, she has spent most of her professional life in France and Germany.
- Mager, Therese. “Anatomy of a Mainstreaming Moment: Inside the 1984 Prime Time Television Broadcast that Facilitated the Rise of the Front National.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-025-09520-w.
- Mager, Therese. “Mobilizing the Narrative of Civilizational Clash: The French Far Right and the Fight Against Antisemitism.” Zusammenhalt begreifen: Blog des Forschungsinstituts Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt. June 23, 2025. https://fgzrisc.hypotheses.org/6159.
- Mager, Therese. “Contesting the Future of the French Globalization Project: The Emergence of a Far-Right Populist Challenge?” In French Globalization Projects, ed. Matthias Middell (2024), pp. 521-544. https://doi.org/10.13109/9783666302176.521.
Translating Alain de Benoist: Cultural Brokers and the Recreation of the Far-Right Intellectual in a New Space
It is impossible to discuss the Nouvelle Droite without mentioning author and intellectual Alain de Benoist. As a key member of the 40 far-right partisans who launched the GRECE (Groupement de Recherche et d'Études pour la Civilisation Européenne) in Nice, France in 1968, the prolific de Benoist quickly established himself as the principal driving force behind the movement. The term “Nouvelle Droite” implies a break with tired or socially unacceptable expressions of conservative or reactionary thought in a postwar European context. It also entails a metapolitical school of thought with an aim of gaining societal relevance through the realm of ideas—a strategy devised by de Benoist and known as “right-wing Gramscianism.” For many academic and journalistic observers, the Nouvelle Droite and its true agenda have long been the subject of constant suspicion: Tamir Bar-On, a prominent scholar on the movement, calls it “a neo-fascism that is suitable for anti-fascist and anti-imperialist times” (Bar-On 2015).
A discreet figure dedicated to the written word, de Benoist has seen his notoriety and influence in France ebb and flow over the decades. His relevance in the English-speaking world, on the other hand, has increased substantially over the past decade. The recent upsurge in anglophone publications concerning de Benoist is almost certainly due to interest in his theories and writings within the American Alt-Right movement. But how did the work of this discreet figure filter into the anglophone white supremacist sphere? While the bulk of his writings remain inaccessible to a non-francophone audience, many of his publications have been made available to English speakers (and consequently to a much broader international audience) through the intervention of various intermediaries. These go-betweens, as suggested by cultural historian Antje Dietze, serve as “cultural brokers” (Dietze 2019) indispensable in the dissemination of the French philosopher’s work in the English-speaking world.
Numerous scholars have taken note of de Benoist’s anglophone intermediaries (Bar-On 2021; Keucheyan 2017; Spektorowski 2016) but little attention has been devoted to the central role these cultural brokers play in reconstructing de Benoist in a new space. By adopting a cultural transfer approach, this presentation proposes an inquiry into how de Benoist’s ideas are selected and shaped to fit a particular agenda, and indeed, how well they lend themselves to that agenda. The presentation first situates de Benoist within the French cultural context, explaining his rise and decline, before delving into his introduction to anglophone publications thanks to the intercession of intellectuals who initially aligned themselves with the American “New Left.” It will then discuss in more detail de Benoist’s role as an intellectual father for the Alt-Right of the late 2010s, with a particular focus on the mediation of the far-right publishing house Arktos Media and extreme-right figures like Daniel Friberg and Richard Spencer. The presentation will also touch on some of de Benoist’s transnational connections with other far-right intellectuals, among them Aleksandr Dugin.