How does Clerambault develop the theme of The Role of the Artist and Intellectual?

Clerambault by Romain Rolland develops The Role of the Artist and Intellectual across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.

The book examines how artists and thinkers of the time either withdrew into isolated refinement or surrendered to the collective soul, losing their critical edge, and calls for a return to robust, independent thought as a higher service to humanity.

The author positions himself as a moralist and stoic essayist, using literature to explore truth and constancy amid public calamities.