Progress and Nostalgia
In the 1970s, autobiographies and life stories by French peasants became bestsellers. Appearances on television turned some of these authors into celebrities. Their popularity reflected a passionate interest in peasant life and peasant society among the general reading public and scholars alike. Peasant memoirists recounted the old ways, but they also bridged the rift between France’s rural past and its modern technological present by addressing contemporary issues that the social and political activism of May 1968 had put on the agenda: environmentalism, feminism, regionalism (including movements seeking Breton and Occitan autonomy), and an interest in the local as a place for utopian experiment and renewal. This chapter focuses on some of the best-known peasant memoirists: Émilie Carles, Pierre Jakez Hélias, Ephraïm Grenadou, and Antoine Sylvère. It also describes the fame of “La mère Denis,” a country washerwoman who starred in washing machine advertisements.