Renegotiating French Identity : Musical Culture and Creativity in France During Vichy and the German Occupation

In light of the recent historiography of Vichy, which stresses its initial political concession, competing factions, and then escalating collaboration with the occupant, this book proposes new questions concerning the shifting nature of French cultural as well as political identity. As the occupation advanced, how did those responsible for cultural policies attempt to adapt their conceptions of French values to accord with the agenda of collaboration in all professional fields? How was French cultural identity and its relation to German culture gradually reconceived by both the occupant and by Vichy as the former played an increasingly interventionist role in music, a symbolic stake in the national self-image of both regimes? Employing the theoretical insights of Gramsci and Bourdieu into hegemony and how it is achieved and combated, this book examines the ways in which musical works were fostered or appropriated and transmitted—physically inscribed, framed, and presented during different phases of the regime as specific groups assumed power. As this study concomitantly demonstrates, we find not only accommodation but also resistance among those artists involved with Vichy’s institutions, and especially in music, where new cultural practices, strategies, and modes of communication emerged as musicians confronted the increasing loss of autonomy in their field. They were forced to assume a position along the spectrum from compliance to resistance on the basis of their perceptions, experience, and subjectivity. Some sought to maintain integrity and avoid appropriation while remaining visible, continuing subtly to innovate and incorporate alternative cultural representations proposed by the Resistance. In Renegotiating French Identity , Jane Fulcher addresses the question of cultural resistance to the German occupation and Vichy regime during the Second World War. Nazi Germany famously stressed music as a marker of national identity and cultural achievement, but so too did Vichy. From the opera to the symphony, music did not only serve the interests of Vichy and German propaganda: it also helped to reveal the motives behind them, and to awaken resistance among those growing disillusioned by the regime. Using unexplored Resistance documents, from both the clandestine press and the French National Archives, Fulcher looks at the responses of specific artists and their means of resistance, addressing in turn Pierre Schaeffer, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, and Olivier Messiaen, among others. This book investigates the role that music played in fostering a profound awareness of the cultural and political differences between conflicting French ideological positions, as criticism of Vichy and its policies mounted. "In Renegotiating French Identity, Jane F. Fulcher addresses the question of cultural resistance to the German occupation and Vichy regime during the Second World War, specifically by addressing the role of music" -- source : éditeur