The French Identity

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The French Identity

• Dr DC. Meyer

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What is into Identity?

• Identity as individual sense of distinctiveness,
  oneness, uniqueness (identifier)
• National Identity Identity as collective sense
  of sameness, likeness (identical)
• The material of collective identity is shared
  culture, i.e., explicit objects, artefacts,
  signs, and also context, implicitness, intertext

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What is into Culture

• Territory and History, Time and Space
• Language and knowledge
• Shared values and laws, references and symbols
• Transmitted by family, education, media

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1. Identity, Territory and Memory

• Celtic settlers (600-400BC)
• The Gauls and the Roman Empire 124 BC 3th c.
  AD
• The Frankish empire (500 1000 AD)
• 11th Christianity and Romanic architecture
• First Crusade (1095).
• Domination of England (11th-12th c)
• 13th Christianity and Gothic architecture
• The Anglo-French war (14th-15th c)
• Renaissance The wars of Italy
• Wars of religion (1562-1598)

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1. Identity, Territory and Memory

• Classicism 17th cent. Versailles
• Enlightenment 18th cent.
• 16th Beginning of global explorations (North
  America, Africa, Pacific Ocean)
• 1789 -The French Revolution
• The French Empire (1802-1814), Napoléon Bonaparte
• The Second Empire, the Third Republic and
  Colonization (1852-1939)
• The First and Second World Wars
• Independence wars (Indochina and Algeria
  1946-1962)
• France and Europe
• France as nuclear power (60s)
• May 68

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Identity, Territory and Memory

• Second Empire (1854-1870), Colonial expansion

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Identity, Territory and Memory

• Franco-Prussia war (1870)
• The Third Républic (1871-1939)

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Identity, Territory and Memory

• WW1 (1914-1918)
• The Versailles Treaty (1919)

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Identity, Territory and Memory

• WW2 (1939-1945)
• the Nazi Occupation (1941-1944)

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Identity, Territory and Memory

• Independence wars 1946 - 1962

Vietnam 1946-1954
Algeria 1954-1962
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Identity, Territory and Memory

• France and Europe
• The Fifth Republic (1958-present)
• France as nuclear power
• May 68

General de Gaulle
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2. Identity and Language

• Celtic, Gaulish, Latin, Germanic
• Langue dOil (North) Langue dOc (South), and
  Provencal (South-East)
• The first text in Francien (Le Serment de
  Strasbourg, 842)
• Francien dominant by the 13th c.
• French as official language Edit of Villers
  Coteret, 1534
• The French Academy (1635)
• In 1789, only one-fifth of the population used
  French
• 1881 The Jules Ferry Bill - Free, compulsory
  and secular primary schooling

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3. Identity and values

• Religion and Catholicism France as the eldest
  daughter of the Church of Rome
• Civil war (16th c.)
• Republic and Laicism

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4. Identity and Citizenship

• Jus sanguini and jus soli A child born in
  France to foreign parents may acquire French
  citizenship
• Citizenship and marriage
• Citizenship and family

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5. Identity and Symbols

• Anthem La Marseillaise
• The Tricolore flag
• The motto
• The rooster
• Monuments

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6. Current debates

• Decolonization and Immigration
• Integrationism vs Multiculturalism
• Ethnicity vs citizenship
• France and Europe France as Founder (elite) to
  France as Rejectionist (people)