DISORIENTATION: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN FRENCH CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE LATE TWENTIETH AND EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES by Kathleen E. Moriarty B.A., Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2004 D.E.A., l’Université de Genève, 2007 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh i 2018 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Kathleen E. Moriarty It was defended on April 17, 2018 and approved by Neil Doshi, Assistant Professor, French and Italian Languages and Literatures Randall Halle, Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German Film and Cultural Studies, German Lina Insana, PhD, Associate Professor, French and Italian Languages and Literatures Giuseppina Mecchia, PhD, Associate Professor, French and Italian Languages and Literatures Dissertation Advisor: Todd W. Reeser, Professor, French and Italian Languages and Literatures ii Copyright © by Kathleen E. Moriarty 2018 iii DISORIENTATION: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN FRENCH CULTURAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE LATE TWENTIETH AND EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES Kathleen E. Moriarty, PhD This dissertation employs a selection of French cultural productions between 1986 and 2010 to analyse the divide between nationally promoted and personally experienced versions of French national identity. In line with the rapidly shifting demographics of the French population, this work advocates for a new paradigm for the study of French national identity. I adapt Sara Ahmed’s use of the term disorientation in queer theory to foreground national identity as an orientation not dissimilar to sexual orientation wherein persons living counter to normative expressions of Frenchness inevitably stand out from the crowd. The corpus reveals, however, that non-normative representations of French identity never completely disengage from French subjectivity. The underlying backgrounds or orientations that permeate society assume Frenchness as a fixed and common set of beliefs, desires, mannerisms, origins, and expectations. The cultural productions of my study highlight the individual and familial deviations, which promote Frenchness as incredibly diverse and arduous to define. I examine examples of disoriented French identity through three main areas of inquiry: the cultural valuation of objects of national importance, international tourism, and the mother-child relationship. These three seemingly disparate topics together show France in its contemporary state as reimagined and distinct from the national narrative promoted by the nation-state. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 LA CHUTE D’UNE NATION .................................................................................... 1 1.1 GUIDING PRACTICE: DISORIENTATION AS THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR NON-NORMATIVE EXPRESSIONS OF FRENCHNESS ....... 5 1.2 MODELING THE NATION: AN EVOLUTION OF THE DEFINITION OF THE NATION ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.3 INCORPORATING THE NATION: TOWARDS A NEW MODEL OF FRENCHNESS ................................................................................................................... 14 1.4 ADAPTING TO THE TIMES: CONTEMPORARY ANECDOTES OF DISORIENTATION ........................................................................................................... 17 1.5 CONNECTING THE DOTS: E PLURIBUS UNUM ..................................... 18 1.6 PLOT(TING) THE NATION: ARTIFACTS OF DISORIENTATION....... 22 2.0 OBJECTIFYING THE NATION IN IN LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE, L’HEURE D’ÉTÉ, AND LE NOM DES GENS ....................................................................... 31 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 31 2.2 LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE ........................................................... 38 2.2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 38 2.2.2 Qu’est-ce que le glanage? .............................................................................. 39 2.2.3 Le glanage et la loi ......................................................................................... 41 v 2.2.4 Claude F. et co. ............................................................................................... 45 2.2.5 Les fruits (et les légumes) de la terre ........................................................... 52 2.2.6 Filming/Genre ................................................................................................ 53 2.2.7 The museum as object ................................................................................... 58 2.3 L’HEURE D’ÉTÉ .............................................................................................. 60 2.3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 61 2.3.2 Scene Analyses ............................................................................................... 63 2.3.2.1 “Préparez-vous pour la suite.” ........................................................... 64 2.3.3 Chez le patriarche—malgré lui .................................................................... 66 2.3.3.1 Corot, Frédéric, and his children: Three lost generations. ............. 71 2.3.4 From curating the home to curating the Musée d’Orsay .......................... 72 2.3.5 The role of the museum in L’heure d’été .................................................... 74 2.3.6 In the eye of the beholder: Gaze(s) in the space of the Musée d’Orsay .... 79 2.4 LE NOM DES GENS......................................................................................... 80 2.4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 80 2.4.2 De quoi Baya Benmahmoud et Arthur Martin sont-ils les noms? ............ 83 2.4.3 Flashbacks: A la recherche des souvenirs perdus ...................................... 86 2.4.4 Les pré-noms .................................................................................................. 88 2.4.4.1 Le non des gens. ................................................................................... 89 2.4.4.2 Autour de la télé. ................................................................................. 91 2.4.4.3 Impostor Syndrome. ........................................................................... 95 2.4.4.4 “And Here My Troubles Began” ....................................................... 98 2.4.5 Allons enfants ã la mairie! .......................................................................... 100 vi 2.4.5.1 Shoah Tardif. ..................................................................................... 107 2.4.5.2 Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Madame Martin... ............................. 109 2.4.5.3 L’avenir des noms. ............................................................................ 110 3.0 THE NATION ON VACATION: TOURISM AND FRENCH IDENTITY IN LANZAROTE, PLATEFORME, AND LA CARTE ET LE TERRITOIRE ..................... 113 3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 113 3.1.1 The texts........................................................................................................ 119 3.2 LANZAROTE .................................................................................................. 124 3.2.1 Nous, les touristes de l’Europe? ................................................................. 125 3.2.1.1 Les guides touristiques de référence................................................ 129 3.2.2 Le touriste français v. le touriste belge: A trip to the bottom ................. 130 3.2.2.1 Rudi and Michel: Capital (city) punishment. ................................. 135 3.2.2.2 Après Michel, le deluge. .................................................................... 136 3.2.2.3 Le début de la fin. .............................................................................. 138 3.2.3 Sex(uality), tourism, and national disorientation ..................................... 139 3.2.3.1 National time on vacation. ................................................................ 140 3.2.4 Les possibilités d’une île .............................................................................. 142 3.2.4.1 Rudi’s escape from Lanzarote. ........................................................ 151 3.3 PLATEFORME ............................................................................................... 153 3.3.1 Occidental Nihilism ..................................................................................... 157 3.3.2 Départ imminent: Thailande ...................................................................... 159 3.3.3 Bodies and Tourism ..................................................................................... 163 3.3.4 Imagined tourist communities: Eldorador Aphrodite ............................. 164 vii 3.3.5 Pattaya: L’attente latente ........................................................................... 171 3.4 LA CARTE ET LE TERRITOIRE................................................................ 177 3.4.1 Jed, l’artiste de tourisme ............................................................................. 185 3.4.2 Voyage au bout de la vie: l’euthanasie patriarchale ...............................