Medievalism Disoriented

This chapter examines the valency of the Middle Ages in the recent French political imaginary, tracing how the nationalist medievalisms of recent decades can be read as a response to the perceived threats and uncertainties of globalization. The chapter explores the heated debates sparked by neoreactionary commentator Éric Zemmour’s use of the Middle Ages to account for France’s apparent loss of identity in the era of multiculturalism and the globalized economy. It also analyses how these debates play out in three recent novels that offer medievalist explorations of contemporary French identity: Jérôme Ferrari’s Sermon on the Fall of Rome (2012), Michel Houellebecq’s notorious 2015 novel Submission, and Mathias Enard’s 2015 novel Compass. By examining these texts together, the chapter offers an account of how France in the age of globalization has used the Middle Ages to understand its own long, contradictory love affair with ideas of nation, empire, and world.

femme maghrébine et française d’origine maghrébine confrontée aux préjugés de la société française.

Francia, el país fundador de los Derechos del Hombre, también conocido como «Tierra de acogida», ha recibido a lo largo de su historia importantes flujos migratorios, provenientes de sus antiguas colonias del Magreb, siendo la mujer magrebí, en sus diversas generaciones, un elemento clave para desarrollo integral de la sociedad francesa, Sin embargo, el Hexágono siempre ha sido reticente para aceptar esta multiculturalidad. De ahí, que estas mujeres estén consideradas como extranjeras en su doble sentido, es decir, bien que vienen de fuera, bien que son extrañas, en base a una serie de prejuicios y estereotipos, que gravitan en el subconsciente colectivo francés. Así, este artículo pretende mostrar la todavía vigencia de la problemática sobre la identidad francesa. Palabras clave: Identidad, prejuicios, estereotipos, extranjera, extraña. France, the founding country of the Human Rights, also known as «Host Land», has received significant migratory flows throughout its history, originating from its former colonies in the Maghreb. In its various generations, Maghreb women are a key element in the overall development of French society. However, the Hexagon has always been reluctant to accept this multiculturalism. Hence, these women are considered as foreigners in their double sense: either they come from outside, or they are strange. This feeling is based on a series of prejudices and stereotypes that gravitate to the French collective subconscious. Thus, this article aims to show the continuing validity of the problematic on French identity. Keywords: Identity, prejudices, stereotypes, foreigners, strangers. La France, pays fondateur des Droits de l'Homme, également appelée "Terre d'accueil", a reçu tout au long de son histoire d'importants flux migratoires, en provenance de ses anciennes colonies du Maghreb, étant les femmes maghrébines, dans leurs différentes générations, un élément clé pour le développement intégral de la société française, mais l'Hexagone a toujours été réticent à accepter ce multiculturalisme. Ainsi, ces femmes sont considérées comme des étrangères au double sens, c'est-à-dire qu'elles viennent soit de l'étranger, soit qu'elles sont étrangères, fondées sur une série de préjugés et de stéréotypes qui gravitent autour de l'inconscient collectif français. Ainsi, cet article tente de montrer le bien-fondé du problème de l'identité française. Mots clés: Identité, préjugés, stéréotypes, étrangères, étranges.

Being Breton through wrestling: Traditional gouren as a distinctive Breton activity

Gouren is a style of wrestling practiced in Brittany, France. It has been “sportised” during the last century, but it still represents an emblematic tradition for those people involved who exploit its ancient origins to describe it as a distinctive Breton activity. Following the same path of Breton “identity”—one that has been defined in opposition to hegemonic French identity— gouren is largely defined by its practitioners in opposition to the “hegemonic” wrestling style in France, judo, viewed as an epitome of globalized sports. Through their actions and narratives, Breton wrestlers shape an alternative (pre-modern) sporting culture, promoting non-aggressive, social, and non-hierarchical attitudes over radical competition, athletic performance and personal achievement. Accordingly, gouren is associated with “old-fashioned” ideas of masculinity, strength and related values, that serve to root the practice in the idealized past of Brittany—even now that women are actively involved in gouren.

Are the Bretons French? The Case of François Jaffrennou/Taldir ab Hernin

This article explores the poetry of François Jaffrennou, who published under the druidic pseudonym Taldir ab Hernin, as a case study in decolonized multilingualism. Close readings of Taldir's writing in Breton, Welsh and French reveal the pressures of negotiating a hybrid Celtic-French identity, as he affirms his Celticity while maintaining a careful relationship with France. Taldir criticizes the French state in his Welsh texts, whereas in French and Breton his critique is more guarded, subtly codified. The Celtic space which emerges here is full of tensions, as Taldir works both within and against the impulse to reconcile Celtic and French identities. I argue that being provincially Other in France requires a delicate balancing act, a special way of being French. I also contend that to work on the local is to work on the global, looking beyond regionalist and postcolonial approaches to Breton writing in an effort to dismantle the monolingualizing tendencies of French Studies.

The Whiteness of French Food

Food is fundamental to French identity. So too is the denial of structural racism and racial identity. Both tenets are central to the nation’s self-definition, making them all the more important to think about together. This article purports to identify and critique a form of “French food Whiteness” ( blanchité alimentaire ), that is, the use of food and eating practices to reify and reinforce Whiteness as the dominant racial identity. To do so, it develops four case studies of how law elevates a fiction of homogenous French/White food as superior and normative at the expense of alternative ways of eating and their eaters—the law of geographical indications, school lunches, citizenship, and cultural heritage.

Fulcher, Jane F. 2018. Renegotiating French Identity: Musical Culture and Creativity in France during Vichy and the German Occupation. Oxford: Oxford University Press

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When Past Group Events and Identities Define the Present: Effect of Perceived Collective Continuity on Defensive Behaviors of the French In-Group

Previous studies have highlighted the benefits of perceived collective continuity. However, to the authors’ knowledge, none have considered the negative effects of such perceptions when they concern a negative past or take the form of a break with a positive past. The authors therefore conducted three studies to examine the influence of perceived continuity (or a break) with positive versus negative events or identities on French in-groups’ defensive behaviors (i.e., perceptions of and attitudes toward refugees and intention to engage in collective actions). They expected to observe the positive impact of a positive (rather than negative) past continuity and a negative (rather than positive) past break. The results of Experiment 1 partially confirmed this hypothesis, as individuals who identified strongly expressed a greater intention to engage in collective actions when they perceived continuity with positive past events. Similarly, participants were more opposed to the reception of refugees when they perceived continuity with a positive past French identity (Experiment 2). Finally, high-identifier participants who perceived a break with a negative past identity expressed greater opposition to the reception of refugees and saw them more as a threat (Experiment 3). The authors discuss the importance of considering the emotional valence of past group memories for the continuity literature and a better comprehension of actual in- and between-group dynamics.

“You can’t forget our roots anyway”: French College Students’ views on a Racially and Religiously Pluralistic France

Despite the longstanding presence of Islam in the territory of France, Muslim French must still claim and justify their belonging in the context of widespread public skepticism over Islam’s compatibility with “French” social and cultural values, such as laïcité, or secularism. The general public’s skepticism is also, in part, due to the historical and ongoing racialization of Muslim populations. Many French sub-populations, including those who are perceived as more “liberal” such as college students, are a part of this skeptical public. Therefore, how have these students speci cally been shaped by contemporary French discourses and understandings of laïcité? There is a lack of scholarly research on French college students in particular and their understandings of French identity, laïcité, and Muslims in France. To ll this gap, I conducted nine semi-structured interviews and drew on informal participant observation. In this article, I discuss French college students’ opinions on French identity as well as the desire for widespread assimilation, speci cally regarding Muslim women and their choice to wear a hijab in France. I examine these viewpoints within the framework of dominant French discourse, which often perpetuates the idea of a racialized Islam that is inherently incompatible with French culture. I argue that students on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum still reiterate opinions that t within this dominant French discourse.