Uncle Jazzbeau’s Gallimaufrey

the gutting of french culture

Miladus ad Usum Delphinorum has brought my attention to an interesting interview in Figaro Magazine with an actual living, breathing French Academician, Professor Marc Fumaroli. Besides being a blurb for his latest book on Chateaubriand, it sums up French sentiments about their not being world leaders, culturally, anymore. There is also, perhaps more seriously, his observation that the French have lost their love of joy, particularly their joy of conversation.

Je montre le décalage entre la France d'avant 1789 et la France d'après, celle du triste XIXe siècle, né avec la Révolution française. Ce qui n'a pas empêché un effort merveilleux à Paris pour restaurer ce qui pouvait l'être. Marcel Proust se moque des salons et de la vie de société, mais il y a trouvé un élément relativement nutritif. Malgré tout, les salons du début du XXe siècle n'ont plus rien à voir avec ceux du XVIIIe. Il y a un mot de Tocqueville que je trouve merveilleux pour caractériser l'Ancien Régime et que je cite souvent : "Les Français aimaient la joie." Une des causes de leur décadence est peut-être d'avoir cessé d'aimer cette joie!

[Marc Fumaroli. "Les Français ont perdu la joie."]

Miladus' entry quotes another of the professor's bons mots: "On ne sait même pas qui [Shakespeare] était, ni de quelle manière il vivait. La conversation chez Shakespeare, c'est le dialogue tragique, comique ou pastoral." This not knowing anything about a famous author bothering folks is what is at the heart of the whole Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare movement. One doesn't know anything about Rabelais, the person, and, yet, that doesn't stop us from reveling in his works. It is interesting that the first literary criticism of Shakespeare by Thomas Rymer was a scathing review of his failures as a playwright along French classical lines. It is sad about the French losing their joy, but perhaps some young filmmaker can remake How Stella Got Her Groove Back à la française.

Translation:

I show the shift between pre-1789 and post-1789 France, that of the sad 19th century, born of the French revolution. This which did not prevent a marvellous effort in Paris to restore what it could. Marcel Proust makes fun of the salons and society life, but he found there a relatively nourishing element. Despite everything, the salons at the beginning of the 20th century do not have anything anymore to do with those of 18th. There is a saying of Tocqueville's that I find marvellous in its characterization of the Ancien Régime, and which I often quote: "The French loved joy." One of the causes of their decline is perhaps they have ceased loving this joy!
[Marc Fumaroli. "The French Have Lost Their Joy."]

"One does not even know who [Shakespeare] was, nor how he lived. Conversation in Shakespeare is tragic, comic, or pastoral dialog."

Posted by jim at August 5, 2003 11:46 AM | TrackBack