Abstract: The identitarian discourse dominant in France during the first half of the twentieth century, which sees it as a country that is capable of integrating diverse cultural influences, provides Valery Larbaud with a frame of thinking that justifies borrowing from foreign languages and introducing avant-garde procedures into his texts. Classicism, from this perspective, is not conceived of as a fixed form, but as an assimilating principle that makes it possible to innovate while respecting tradition.