French Culture Research Articles

HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS IN THE RENEWAL OF THE LANGUAGE OF CHURCH MONUMENTAL PAINTING IN FRANCE AT THE TURN OF THE 20th CENTURY ON THE EXAMPLE OF PAINTINGS BY MAURICE DENIS

The study analyzes the historical and philosophical origins of the renewal in church monumental art in French culture at the turn of the 20th century. The crisis that broke out in the second half of the 19th century within the philosophical knowledge and classical religion and an attempt to rethink the evolution of Christianity entailed significant changes in artistic creativity devoted to the sacred theme. The author explores the topic based on the church mural paintings of the French painter Maurice Denis, who stood at the origins of the transformation of the language of religious painting and whose role is significant for the further history of European art. The relevance of the work lies in the fact that all previous studies on this topic were primarily art criticisms. They paid special attention to the analysis of the artistic language and pictorial and expressive means. At the same time, questions of historical and philosophical nature and their role in the formation of new European religious painting were analyzed to a much lesser extent.

Political Issues of the Louvre's Internationalisation

This article focuses on the internationalisation of the Louvre since the 2000s. A flagship of French culture, it is, along with the British Museum in London, the universal museum of reference. The French state, through successive governments, has mobilised the Louvre, that is, the institution, as an intermediary in international agreements. This museum and cultural institution then become a real stakeholder in international relations. Thus, the whole point of our remarks is to analyse the issues and controversies surrounding the close relationship between the Louvre and the French State. The Louvre, a renowned French museum and heritage site, is now multi-spatial. This model responds in part to a request from the French government to perfect the interplay of international influence. The internationalisation of the Louvre is thus understood not as the Louvre's reputation on an international level, but as the use of this heritage in international political strategies. By approaching this case in French international relations, we can first of all question the stakes of the transition from heritage to National Branding. In other words, to understand how in contemporary literature, heritage is transformed not only as a tool to retrace the past of a society, but also how it becomes an emblem that can be mobilised by States to claim a form of legitimacy from other States. The method, which is essentially based on interviews conducted within the framework of these, aims to answer two questions. What does the deterritorialisation of a national heritage such as the Louvre produce regarding international relations between the Louvre, the city of Abu Dhabi and in relations between France and the United Arab Emirates, then the impact that the Louvre Abu Dhabi can have at the local and regional level.

Russian Literature in France: A New Look at the History of Triumph

This review considers Les intellectuels russes à la conquête de l’opinion publique française: Une histoire alternative de la littérature russe en France de Cantemir à Gorki, a collection edited by Alexandre Stroev, a specialist in Franco-Russian cultural connections. The publication sets an ambitious goal — to offer an alternative history of the perception of Russian literature in France over a period of almost two centuries. Nineteen articles mostly cover the translations and reception of works by a number of prominent representatives of Russian literature in France. At the same time, many of them explore the interest of Russian writers in French culture, their reading repertoire, circle of acquaintances, and travel diaries. The opinions expressed in most cases are adapted to modern theoretical research and are significant for both the history and theory of literature. The publication is dedicated to the memory of the untimely departed Alexander Yanushkevich, a remarkable researcher of 19th-century Russian literature and a participant of the collection.

Surrealism's Homophobia

The primary document of Surrealist homophobia is a transcript, published in 1928 in the magazine La Révolution surréaliste, entitled “Research on Sexuality/ Extent of Objectivity, Individual Determinations, Degree of Consciousness.” The text records the first two of twelve closed, mostly men-only meetings, held in Paris between 1928 and 1932 by members and fellow travelers of the Surrealist group, at which the participants, according to the collective ethos of Surrealist practice, discussed their sexual preferences, experiences, and beliefs. In the published sessions, the group's leader, André Breton, who convened the meetings and edited the transcript, repeatedly denounced male homosexuality. The problematics of these repudiations are the topics of this article, the intention of which is to map the historical conditions of Breton's heteronormativity and to outline the latter's function in his theory of Surrealism. To this end, the essay displaces the psychoanalytic emphasis customary in Surrealism's reception in order to locate the movement in the historical discourse of sexuality. In the French culture wars of the 1920s, Surrealism mobilized a sexual negativity against the mainstream. Yet in certain key respects, Breton's thought preserved a heterosexist logic of conjugality. Ultimately, a historical reading of Surrealism's homophobia indicates the family ties between dialectical idealism and heteronormativity.

Lendo em Francês leio o mundo: significações produzidas por alunos de uma escola pública amapaense sobre o ensino da Língua Francesa para a comunicação interfronteiriça

In this text the objective is to analyze the meanings that students from a public school in Amapá have been producing on the teaching of the French language for cross-border communication. To achieve the proposed objective, we appropriate the theoreticalmethodological assumptions of Historical-Cultural Theory/Activity Theory. The question that guided this research was: In the speeches of students from a public school in Amapá, what are the possible meanings (senses and meanings) produced about the teaching of the French language for cross-border communication? Participated in the study 5 (five) students of the 3rd year of High School of a public school in Amapá, located on the border of Brazil/French Guiana, which has the French language as a mandatory curricular component. Specifically, on the production of the data, semi-structured interviews were used. The results of the research show that it is necessary to think about linguistic policies that value the teaching of languages with a focus on culturally marked proposals, which are based, above all, on the relationship between language and culture. In addition, the meanings produced, from the speeches of the investigated students, are demonstrative that, for these students, the learning of the French language mediates not only frank communication but also the learning of the elements of French culture.

Structure and Historicity of Cultural Tastes. Uses of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Sociological Theory on Age: The Case of Music and Movies

The sociology of cultural tastes and practices seeks, on the one hand, to show how tastes and practices are structured, and on the other hand, to explain them. For this purpose, multivariate analysis, and in particular, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), has been chosen as the preferred statistical method to support a theory of ‘homology’ between ‘social position’ and preferences. This article reassesses the initial interpretation offered by Bourdieu of the two factor spaces of ‘dominant’ and ‘petit-bourgeois’ tastes in Distinction (1979) and discusses how MCA is used in the sociology of culture as ‘structural homology’, especially one-dimensionally (single-axis reduction) and positionally, without the inclusion of the age variable. The two ways of considering the effect of age are either by excluding it a priori (‘omitted axis’) or by not theorizing it (‘descriptive axis’). We show, using data from the 2008 French Cultural Practices survey on tastes in music and movies, how a factor analysis that incorporates age outlines a generational and historical structuring of tastes. We explain the different dimensions of age in terms of cultural practices and we interpret the level of education in terms of knowledge. The article advocates a model for the interpretation of tastes that is no longer based on the structure of capital, but rather on cultural history and specific competences.

The Rococo Aesthetics in Claude Debussy's “L’isle Joyeuse”: Communicative Component

The concert piece “L’Isle Joyeuse” (1904) is an outstanding example of the piano literature of the 20th century. The main attention here is paid to the “homage” to the aesthetics and music traditions, typical for French culture, which are so brightly embodied in this piece and which give an opportunity to learn the communicative component of the interpretive work on the piece under the special angle. The “L’Isle Joyeuse” challenges the researcher and performer with its semantic and stylistic multilayer. A communicative component here is shown in the links to other forms of art: connections with the painting by A. Watteau “An Embarquement to Cythere” gives program content to the piece that refers to the rococo features of French harpsichord style. Also, an article specially hints at genre allusions (for example, habanera), pays attention to the composers’ techniques of various national music schools, exotic for the French of that time (for example, oriental, presented at the Paris World Exhibitions) and proclaims numerous composer ideas, which earned for С. Debussy the fame of being first composer-“impressionist” despite the conventionality of this term and of С. Debussy’s own objection for it. One of the areas, s fruitful for interpretive work with this piece, is the aesthetics of Rococo, embedded in the work at the level of the program source. That is why this paper provides information that contributes to the fullest understanding of the traditions that are reflected in the “L’Isle Joyeuse”. The circumstances, which directly influenced the emotional sphere of the piece, include the biographical context of its creating. The characteristic of the artistic context in which the work resides is given, to derive the piece from the sphere of pure piano performance to the wider art space. This gives an opportunity to create algorithms for the work with musical text based on the most detailed reading of the information submitted by the composer in the form of sheet music and literary commentary, in order to get as close as possible to the embodiment of the author’s intention. The article identifies new perspectives on the study and performance interpretation of the work; to demonstrate its interaction with the national and historical context, identify the features of the Rococo in the artistic context of the work and the communicative levels of their manifestations, which can be significant for the performing musicians, scholars, students.

Attualità dell'Illuminismo

The article takes its cue from Antoine Lilti’s book, L’heritage des Lumieres (2018) and retraces the themes dealt with by the author with the intention of describing the central problem areas in the culture of the Enlightenment. The author’s reflection focuses on the issues of Western economic and colonial expansion and the conflictual nature of the commercial civilization of the West, highlighting how European Enlightenment – the analysis focuses on French culture and, subordinately, Scottish culture – has shown a lively awareness of the problems of contemporary globalization and the demands it has subjected ethics, the vision of history, the conception of society and political power, religious ideas. These phenomena have influenced the development of a cosmopolitan attitude, paradoxically divided between acceptance of diversities and eurocentrism that is, in its contradictory aspects of recognition of the variety of human cultures and of universalistic tension, aimed at affirming the superiority of the values of the white, expanding West and the historical, almost messianic necessity of their global spreading. The article then dwells on the problems of modernity and politics, the other two central aspects of Enlightenment reflection as it is retraced by the author of the book: modernity as the development of a public media communication dimension and as a profound change in the space of private subjectivity; and politics as a space for the affirmation of rights and freedom in which the role played by the intellectual has been experienced by the Enlightenment in a conflictual and contradictory way, between challenge of and cooperation with powerful absolute sovereigns. The final part of the article dwells precisely on how the return to the Enlightenment has represented in various historical periods, as an inspiration for the critical use of reason, doubt and subjective engagement, a necessary moment for the redefinition of the tasks of intellectuals in the face of the conflicts of contemporary societies.

Ballroom Frenzy and the Clodoche Quadrille

For all the lip-service French culture pays to reason and logic, it undergoes periodic eruptions of déraison or unreason. In the wake of Napoleon’s defeat, ballroom dancing began to be infiltrated by such unbridled popular dances as the cancan and the chahut. Exuberant, even bacchanalian physical display served as a safety-valve in a heavily censored society. In the Second Empire, four working-class amateurs introduced the high-kicking, parodic Clodoche quadrille at the Paris Opéra. A non-verbal equivalent of the Marx Brothers, they became bywords through the Western hemisphere of zany, comic demonstrations of the hysteric convulsions described by the medical establishment. Laurence Senelick is Fletcher Professor Emeritus of Drama and Oratory at Tufts University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a contributor to the International Encyclopedia of Dance. His many books include British Music Hall: A Bibliography (1981), The Age and Stage of George L. Fox (1999), and Cabaret Performance 1890–1940 (2001–2005).

Traces of French Culture in the Narratives of the Residents of Palanga

The article focuses on the traces of French culture in the town of Palanga in the first decade of independent Lithuania. It is based on the stories of the residents of Palanga that represent their relationship with French culture. Palanga was chosen due to the fact that it was among the first cities in Lithuania where the ‘FrenchLithuanian Centre of Culture’ was established in 1992. The case study reveals the traces of French culture through the point of view of the main personalities (the founding members of the cultural centre in Palanga); two positions are examined. On the one hand, they represent similar discourses regarding the phenomenon of Francophony, but, on the other hand, they differ when the informants reflect on the situation from the current perspective. In one case, French culture becomes the dominant narrative as it has had a high impact on the informant’s world view. In another case, this culture is seen from a more distant point of view, as if it was a dream not completely fulfilled. The narratives were presented as personal experiences of two different genders, as particular parts of their life stories. Following the circular story, selective memory is revealed.

Interpretative aspect of C. Saint‑Saëns’s piano music

Interpretative aspect of C. Saint‑Saëns’s piano music

«European Home» Concept seen in French Art and Culture (on the Example of M. Houellebecq’s Work)

The literature of modern France vividly expresses the cultural element of the form of «métissage» the essential features of which are today conceptualized by the concept of «European home». Undoubtedly, its examination through the lens of cultural studies allows the tracing of not only the logicalconceptual but also the empirical content of the concept is of particular interest. In addition, our huge interest lies within the identification and the description of the contradictions between «general» and «special» in the private lives of individuals as well as in that of entire nations in the context of globalization, European integration, and technological revolution. The work of the famous French writer Michel Houellebecq provides rich material for the study of the above topic. In his books, M. Houellebecq identified several problems that, according to him, contribute to the accelerating decomposition of unique European cultures. Among them, one can distinguish the dominance of the European and national bureaucracies, the destruction of the historically established cultural and casual lifestyle, and their standardization. The writer also raises a more general issue about the causes of the modern man’s distorted identity. In his opinion, these problems basically originate from the loss of religious and moral values, leading to confusion and weakness of will, turning the daily existence of a demoralized individual to a routine of simulated consumption. Inevitably, such simulation destroys emotionality, depriving a person of proper human feelings, and prevents them from creating stable relationships with other people. Houellebecq describes the tectonic shifts in the cultural life of France along with the perception of a tragic change in the identity of the European people, whose home is «everywhere» and «nowhere».

Termes d’adresse dans la société contemporaine: deux cultures à l’aune du regard du chercheur

Abstract This article’s purpose is to analyse the derived forms of term frère in French culture, where its correspondent is frérot, and in Italian culture, where the correspondent is fratè. We will try to show how and why, if yes or not, the two terms represent the same realities in both languages; if there is a same semantic extension and how the speakers of both languages use the two derived forms in their conversations. This study is contrastive, and its objective is also to define convergences and divergences of the use of the two forms fratè and frérot in the languages under analysis, that is to say French and Italian.

Perbandingan Penyimpangan Prinsip Kesopanan Budaya India dan Perancis Dalam Film The Hundred-Foot Journey

This study aims to investigate the comparison of the deviations of the principle of politeness in Indian and French culture in a film called The Hundred-Foot Journey. Here the author uses Leech's theory of politeness principles which consists of maxims: (1) maxim of wisdom, (2) maxim of generosity, (3) maxim of praise, (4) maxim of humility, (5) maxim of compatibility, and (6) maxim of sympathy. Of these 2 cultures, only 3 maxims deviations were found consisting of: (1) deviations of wisdom maxims, (2) deviations of humility maxims, and (3) deviations of the maxims of agreement. The most common deviations in the principle of politeness in these two different cultures are maxim of agreement. The culture that often violates the maxim of agreement is Indian culture, which commits 16 violations, while France has 11 violations.

Too similar or too different: Effect of acculturation strategies on judgments of a violent act committed by a Vietnamese offender

In the literature, several studies have shown that the perpetrator’s ethnic origin and acculturation strategy are particularly influential extrajudicial factors, but authors have focused on highly stigmatized groups. The aim of this study was to examine how the participants’ judgments were influenced by the acculturation strategy of a Vietnamese aggressor (member of a valued minority group in France), the consequences of the act for the victim, and their level of SDO. It was expected that assimilation, which reflects a strong similarity with the majority group, or separation, reflecting strong dissimilarity, would lead to negative judgments of the assault and its perpetrator and a harsher punishment. After reading a scenario describing a physical assault committed by a Vietnamese man, in which the perpetrator’s acculturation strategy and the consequences of the act were manipulated, 196 French students completed a questionnaire.The results confirm our hypothesis. Moreover, they show that when there were serious consequences for the victim, the act was considered to be more serious if the offender had not adopted French culture. However, when the consequences were minor, the act was considered to be more serious and a harsher punishment was recommended if the offender had adopted French culture. We explain how acculturation strategy is an important factor when judging transgressions, and how being too similar or too different to the majority group can increase the perceived threat. The status of SDO is discussed.

Every Man is an Island: Decanonisation and Fragmentation in Reza Ghassemi’s <i>The Nocturnal Harmony of Wood Orchestra</i>

Reza Ghassemi’s first Novel, The Nocturnal Harmony of Wood Orchestra, is a unique example of Iranian postmodern novel. First published in the US in 1996 (Nashr-e Ketab-e America) and then by the Iranian publisher Cheshmeh, it was lauded as the Best Novel of the Year 2002 by Hooshang Golshiri Literary Award and as the 2002 Novel of the Year by the Press Critics’ Awards. The protagonist/narrator of the story has fled the post-revolutionary Iran to Paris and ended up dwelling with a variety of typical exilic Iranians – a macrocosm of Iranian society. On the one hand, he has lost his roots; on the other, he cannot adapt to French culture and community. The present study explores the novel in the light of postmodernist point of view and posits that, aside from enjoying features of postmodern fiction in its narrative labyrinths, this work depicts a world with many of its elements rooted in superstitions, religious beliefs and contradictions that are unique to the Iranian mind. In the novel, prominent postmodern elements are traceable and concepts such as metafiction, vicious circles, grand narrative collapse and paranoia are incorporated; however, it is not merely an artificial collection of technical details. After the revolution, many Iranians left the country either because they were related to the previous regime and staying would have been fatal to them, or they could not tolerate the drastic changes in society which made living intolerable. This study aims to show how an Iranian immigrant turns to a specter (he belongs neither to the native culture nor the French) in exile and eventually metamorphoses to a dog. It is in fact a natural consequence of narrating the confusion of a contemporary man in exile who reflects the confusion and turmoil of the dystopian world around him.

Understanding Secularism and National Identity in French Political Discourses

The concept of secularism or laicité is expressed in political discourses in various ways by the French presidential candidates in the 2017 campaign. Both candidates, Emmanuel Macron (EM) and Marine Le Pen (MLP) used specific forms and lingual expressions to explain secularism and national identity, especially those related to ‘Islam’, ‘immigration’ and ‘terrorism’. This study uses critical discourse analysis linked to their parties’ ideologies based on identity, activities, goals, norms, and values. In the discourses presented by EM and MLP, Islam is associated with religion, Muslims, jihad, Islamic fundamentalists, the burqa, and secularism. The results of discourse analysis show that EM’s and MLP’s discourses on secularism and Islam are notably different. MLP views secularism in France as being under threat due to external threats, namely immigrants and in particular Muslim immigrants. In contrast, EM views secularism as a concept to support and protect the identity of the nation and to support and to add to the diversity of French culture and identity. The findings of this research is that French concepts of national identities, which is closely related to secularism, correlates to the ideologies of the respective presidential candidates’ parties. The relationships between the parties’ ideologies, national identities, and discourses investigated in this research can be used as a methodology for political discourses, especially French political discourses.

Periphery and Intimacy in Anti-Imperial Culture and Politics

In the late period of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French imperialism, French thinkers, artists, and colonists had long held a fascination with the “others” inhabiting France’s colonies. Intimate contact and cross-cultural encounters led to descriptions and often violent differentiations of these groups that helped define French identity. But what might we learn by employing a “postcolonial praxis” that seeks new ways of interrogating identity from anti-imperial actors? Taking the perspectives of three key anti-imperialists—Frantz Fanon, Ousmane Sembène, and Simone Lellouche Othmani—this article unearths their perceptions about France and French identity. For these figures, France could represent either an unfulfilled promised land or a place of exile. Frenchness, likewise, ran the spectrum from a set of desired if unattainable qualities, an immoral culture to be resisted at all costs, to a national identity to be deployed for political strategy. This radical approach turns Frenchness into an “other” while contributing to the emergence of new postcolonial identities. At the same time, it demonstrates how three important definitions of France and of Frenchness depended upon both peripheral positionality and intimate access to French culture.

La abadesa embargada por el pie

En la comunicación humana de buen gusto la represión sexual ha provocado un sinnúmero de mecanismos de desplazamiento mediante los cuales se evitaba el nombramiento directo de los órganos de la reproducción, que eran sustituidos por otras partes del cuerpo. El pie (pierna o muslo) tiene obvias connotaciones sexuales en muchos textos bíblicos, así como en la narrativa religiosa y la lírica de tipo tradicional españolas. Estas extremidades, en sus connotaciones simbólicas, entraron a formar parte del lenguaje coloquial de refranes y otros dichos en diversas culturas: alemana, española, francesa e inglesa. Las aportaciones del psicoanálisis y la etnología nos han ayudado a dilucidar la sicogénesis del pie-falo, y la crítica literaria y el análisis filológico del texto de Berceo sobre la abadesa empreñada por el pie demuestran con qué gracia y maestría el poeta riojano supo evitar el lenguaje escabroso para revestir su narración de metonimias y juegos etimológicos.

프랑스 문화언어학에 대한 소고

프랑스 문화언어학에 대한 소고