Barthes, Blondin, and the Tour de France of the Trente Glorieuses

Abstract

Ruadhán Cooke considers how observations of the race by Roland Barthes and Antoine Blondin blur the distinctions between high and popular culture, thereby legitimizing sport as a theme that has literary merit. Although it is sometimes considered a commercial ‘product’ owned and exploited by a private media organization, cycling’s Tour de France has always enjoyed the almost unconditional support of national, regional and local authorities, and has ultimately become an institution belonging to the public. In the 1960 film documentary entitled ‘What is Sport?’ Barthes declares a Frenchman’s geography to be that of the Tour, and describes the race as a spectacle that captivates the entire nation. The 1955 Tour inspired Barthes to write his essay ‘The Tour de France as Epic,’ published in Mythologies in 1957. This same Tour was covered in its entirety by the French writer Antoine Blondin, who wrote a daily chronicle of the race in the pages of L’Équipe from 1954 to 1982, as this newspaper’s chosen ‘Novelist on the Tour’. Cooke’s analysis illustrates how, at a pivotal time in the country’s history, these two authors helped legitimize sport as a theme worthy of literature and academic study.