French Politics, Culture & Society

This article examines the role played by the nòva cançon occitana (new Occitan song) in disseminating post-1968 regionalist ideologies, particularly the contention that Occitanie constituted an “internal colony” of France. While both the nòva cançon and the internal colonialism thesis proved instrumental in advancing the Occitanist cause, they also raised intractable problems. The depiction of Occitanie as a colonized territory consolidated a fragile sense of regional identity, but in so doing demanded that individuals repress the French dimensions of their identity. In addition, nòva cançon performers did not simply convey regionalist ideals through music, but were compelled to embody these ideals in their behavior, ideological stance, and self-presentation. To illuminate such tensions, the article considerers the controversy triggered when one Occitan singer-songwriter, Joan Pau Verdier, signed with an international label, thereby opening himself up to charges of having betrayed the Occitanist cause.

During the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), France mobilized tens of thousands of native Algerian soldiers, known as the harkis, for counterinsurgent operations directed against their own countrymen of the National Liberation Front. As recruits for the French army, the harkis were given French status, which was then revoked when Algeria gained its independence. France later accepted the harkis as veterans and “repatriates,” only to confine them in camps until the 1970s. The abuse of the harkis has been noted as a “forgotten” episode in French postcolonial history. This article argues that the harkis were far from having been “forgotten,” and in fact were considered important throughout the Fifth Republic as a powerful counterpoint to the more problematic immigrant Algerian population in France. The harkis represented the key tension in postcolonial France between the notion of an irrevocable civil status and a national identity that favored a Eurocentric culture.

This article examines recent efforts to foster a sense of “Franco-Germanness” in France through an analysis of popular media generated by the fortieth anniversary of the Elysée Treaty in 2003, including: (1) a Franco-German television news program, (2) a light-hearted television program called Karambolage that presents daily life in France and Germany, and (3) a new history textbook for use in both German and French schools. These recent efforts differed from previous attempts to bring France and Germany closer both in terms of how they operated (earlier efforts focused on informing one country about the other's foreign culture; recent efforts were more about identifying what the two have in common) and why they occurred (earlier efforts focused on transforming a former enemy into a friend; recent efforts were about coming together in the face of a common adversary, namely, the Bush administration and its position on Iraq).

In France and England & Wales rape is now understood as a diverse social phenomenon. It is reported, counted, categorized, and dealt with by the authorities as a serious crime. Yet, despite notable initiatives intended to improve the conviction of alleged perpetrators, major hurdles for alleged victims remain. We show how rape is defined and prosecuted in France and England & Wales, and we use statistical analyzes to understand the scale of the problem, still largely unknown. We also discuss recent controversies (attrition rate;loicadre), exploring a culture of scepticism among police and judiciary that causes complaints to be dropped or downgraded to lesser crimes. Our interview material from France explores two difficulties: When is rape not rape? Did the alleged victim consent to the penetration? Finally we analyze the paradoxical role played by voluntary victim support groups that resist but also collude with a complex regulatory system that fails those who do not speak in legitimate codes.

What do we know about the political process of the French Revolution?* We know a great deal about its origins; we know a lot about its outcomes; and we know a great deal about political events that occurred in the course of the revolutionary decade. But the ongoing processes internal to the Revolution have been largely bracketed by scholars anxious to understand either its convoluted origins or its epochal outcomes.

Ingrid Galster, Beauvoir dans tous ses états (Paris: Tallandier, 2007).

The recent controversy over the new English translation of Le Deuxième Sexe in the pages of the London Review of Books and elsewhere would seem to suggest that there’s life in the old girl yet, which was not all that evident from the somewhat lukewarm 2008 centenary celebrations. It remains to be seen what posterity holds in store for Simone de Beauvoir, especially given that posterity has already begun, and thus far her legacy could not be less clear.

Michael Sutton, France and the Construction of Europe 1944–2007 (Oxford: Berghahn, 2007).

Tilo Schabert, How World Politics is Made: France and the Reunification of Germany, trans. John Tyler Tuttle (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2009).

Frédéric Bozo, Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War and German Unification, trans. Susan Emanuel (Oxford: Berghahn, 2009).

Lloyd Kramer Liberal Values: Benjamin Constant and the Politics of Religion by Helena Rosenblatt

Paul V. Dutton Breadwinners and Citizens: Gender in the Making of the French Social Model by Laura Levine Frader

Paul Jankowski The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France by Simon Kitson

Lynne Taylor The Politics of Everyday Life in Vichy France: Foreigners, Undesirables, and Strangers by Shannon Fogg

Rodney Benson Turning on the Mind: French Philosophers on Television by Tamara Chaplin

Elisa Camiscioli La Condition noire: Essai sur une minorité française by Pap Ndiaye

Susan Carol Rogers The Life of Property: House, Family and Inheritance in Bearn, South-West France by Timothy Jenkins

Abstracts

Index to Volume 28 (2010)