Displaying the Arlésienne: Museums, Folklife and Regional Identity in France

Abstract

This paper examines one of France's first regional ethnographic museums in order to reveal the evolving dynamic of regional culture and its fluid relation to the central administration's efforts to circumscribe French national identity through the museum system. The most successful, most imitated, and best known museum designed to stimulate regional culture was undoubtedly Mistral’s Museon Arlaten. Here and especially in the Festo Vierginenco, Mistral encouraged Arlesiennes to reject modern clothing, and thus the hegemony of Parisian culture, and to do more than the museum ever could: to be the living embodiment of the regional spirit. The example of Mistral’s folkloric museum, its parading of a postulated Provencal heritage, the proliferation of local museums, and the refusal to display significant folklore in Parisian museums at the end of nineteenth century all expose the complexity of museum discourses in the creation and negotiation of regional and national identities in France. Keywords:Arlesienne; Festo Vierginenco; folklore; France; Mistral’s Museon Arlaten; museums; regional identity