The Routledge Handbook of French Politics and Culture. Edited by Marion Demossier, David Lees, Aurélien Mondon, and Nina Parish

Abstract

This handbook aims to provide an overview of the most pressing and mediatized cultural and political issues facing contemporary France, placed against the backdrop of modern European history. Essays by prominent academics from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds make up the book’s four parts. The contributions in the first part provide a foundation for the subsequent sections, focusing on modern and contemporary French politics, with special attention to the electoral politics leading to the Macron presidency, the history of the notion of Gaullism, colonization of and involvement in Africa, and the evolution of women’s political participation. The second and third parts engage with questions related to belonging, identity, and spaces of contestation. The authors interrogate a wide range of highly politicized topics in France, such as policies on immigration and ‘integration’, Islamophobia, the racialization of Romani people, protest movements, constructions of and discourses surrounding the banlieue, and contemporary feminisms. The final part addresses the mediation of memory, remembrance, and culture. Contributors analyse exhibition decisions made in First World War museums, the role of propaganda and mass media in politics, music nostalgia, the figure of the public intellectual, and representations of Jews. One of the book’s strengths is its inclusion of many chapters dedicated to interrogating questions of race, racism, and othering. Marwan Mohammed, Marion Demossier, Tom Martin, Fabien Truong, Mehammed Mack, and Rebecca Infield and Rebekah Vince offer particularly illuminating contributions that consider the interplay between French national identity and various forms of race politics. If the ambitious aim of this book is to provide a survey of the French political and cultural landscape, it bears mentioning that any attempt to canonize cultural issues worthy of study necessarily involves the politics of exclusion and inclusion. While Mack’s chapter does look at the gay nightclub space, this handbook would have been improved if more space were devoted to the consideration of queer and trans issues in France. Moreover, certain chapters reveal blind spots and a disconnect with the populations being spoken for. For instance, ‘Gender and Crisis’ ventures into troubling territory with the suggestion that misogyny may be present in fashion companies’ decisions simply to sell headscarves (p. 183). Such a claim fits within femonationalist discourses that instrumentalize feminism against Muslims by characterizing Islam as a fundamentally oppressive religion from which women must be ‘saved’. Similarly, ‘The French “Banlieues”’ dubiously asserts that racial polarization is ‘inscribed […] in mindsets [in America], far more than in France’ and attributes ‘most’ riots in the banlieue to the ‘accidental’ killings of youth by police (p. 137). A consideration of the many high-profile, non-accidental instances of excessive force throughout French history that have led to the deaths of Black and Maghrebi people would have been helpful here. In summary, this handbook’s twenty-three chapters provide a foundation necessary for students of contemporary French culture and politics. However, readers should engage critically and thoughtfully, as academics themselves are not impervious to the effects of the mediatization and politicization of the topics discussed throughout this book.