Revisiting "nos anctres les Gaulois:" Scripting and Postscripting Francophone Identity Author(s): Janice Gross Source: The

French Review, Vol. 78, No. 5 (Apr., 2005), pp. 948-959 Published by: American Association of Teachers of French Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25479983 . Accessed: 11/10/2011 12:43
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The

French

Review,

Vol.

78, No.

5, April 2005

Printed inU.S.A.

Revisiting

Scripting and Postscripting Francophone Identity

''nos ancetres

les Gaulois:"

Gross by Janice

Tous les peuples rient de leursmalheurs pour les depasser. ?Fellag

Oince

teen centuries ago, the bravura of the Gallic warrior became firmly estab own lished in recorded history. In fact, some have claimed that Caesar's a mighty account of desire for self-glorification fueled the heightened more than the actual circumstances may have warranted. adversary Nevertheless, when a nation seeks to shore up a flagging national image,

le Due d'Aumal dubbed the legendary military leader "le premier des Frangais" (Theis 65), this fabled warrior Vercingetorix has infused the imaginaire of French identity in countless ways. Although in recent times to become almost and mythologized largely popularized from his comic-strip offspring Asterix, the historical indistinguishable Vercingetorix along with the Gaulois and the battle sites of Gergovie and in the annals of historical scholar Alesia remain prominently embedded The military leader gained recognition for his ability to unify the ship.1 disparate Celtic groups of Gaul in opposition to the all-powerful army of an impressive victory at Gergovie, Vercingetorix Julius Caesar. Despite and his Gaulois were ultimately reduced to starvation and defeat in the battle of Alesia in 52 BCE. However, due to Caesar's own written account in his De Bello Gallico fif surrender of Vercingetorix of the ceremonious

1858when

canvasses the annals of its past for inspiration. itunderstandably In the face of France's struggle to strengthen its reputation as an inter national player in the nineteenth century, the nation found solace in even in defeat. As such, the profile of valor and dignity Vercingetorix's as an memory of a historic battle against all odds emerged forgotten 948

SCRIPTING AND POSTSCRIPTING FRANCOPHONE

IDENTITY 949

essential feature of the national desire to help a deflated post-Napoleonic France regain its confidence and redefine its aspirations for the future. Largely ignored throughout earlier centuries, the latent potency of the Vercingetorix legend saw its greatest revival in the aftermath of the dev the search effects of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Moreover, astating to recover its image as a unified and mighty nation also instigated France's drive for colonial expansion during the same critical period. The lesson of the undeterred defender Vercingetorix was readily incorpo rated into the process of national identity formation throughout the nine teenth and first half of the twentieth century. In the famous history in 1876, schoolchildren were firstpublished "Le Petit Lavisse," manual,

defeat to their taught how to apply the significance of Vercingetorix's own lives: "Dans les guerres, on n'est jamais sur d'etre vainqueur; mais on peut sauver l'honneur en faisant son devoir de bon soldat. Tous les et l'aimer" enfants de la France doivent se souvenir de Vercingetorix another era of destabilized national and St. Onge 153). During (Steele under Vichy with the "Republique frangaise" denigrated to "Etat identity the nation was given a boost when the "francisque gauloise" frangais," was adopted as the emblem of national pride, and rallies held at Gergovie une reincarnation de (Po suggested Petain as "presque Vercingetorix" mian 44). On both the right and the left sides of the political spectrum, the Gaulois and their chief were called upon to do battle on behalf of one or another ideological cause throughout the twentieth century. With themore recent rise to fame of the comic strip Asterix, an impor tant historical footnote has achieved broad international recognition as

the feisty and loveable brawler takes his rightful place in the pantheon of and le coq gaulois. After all was said national icons alongside Marianne
and done, Pomian concluded that the earlier, now

the Gaulois over the Francs paved the way for the subsequent postmod ern rescripting of the Gaulois story: "[...] les Gaulois peuvent devenir ce qu'ils sont: de l'autoderision a maintenant mythologique l'objet de central et originaire de la nation France" recherche, ce lieu de memoire (96). As Vercingetorix and Asterix seemingly merge into a hero for all sea sons and reasons, "te phenomene" Asterix continues to acquire layers of Asterix a veritable "lieu de memoire" in his own signification making Viewed by many as the "alter ego" of the French people, Asterix right.2 has come to embody familiar French reactions, behaviors, and attitudes in or "te symptome the form of "the Asterix complex" (Alain Duhamel) Asterix." For example, when the tranquil rural landscape of the outskirts of Paris was annexed to build Euro Disney in the early 1990s, itwas cast as a frontal attack on France's local theme Pare park, the homegrown Asterix. Other modern-day Goliaths the proud presence of threatening "1'exception frangaise" might be "l'Europe immigres ou la world company americaine" de Bruxelles," (Benamou les "bodies," les or more 3), recently,

uncontested,

victory

of

950 FRENCH REVIEW 78.5 the Anglo-Saxon pairing of Bush-Blair in a defiant challenge to France's veto power in the United Nations. Commentator Michel Faure affection ately describes his compatriots in thisway: "In short, we are all Asterixes our Gallic nostalgic for villages and worried about ending up like Gaul, which became a province of Rome" (7). In the face of mounting Anglo to resist American French rivalries, the detennination imperialism grows
ever

from comic strip to animation, Asterix was made flesh in 1999 Moving and placed under theweighty protection ofObelix played by the embodi ment of French cinema itself,Gerard Depardieu, in Claude Zidi's budget

stronger.

turn breaking feature film, Obelix etAsterix contre Cesar. In an auspicious of events, the film's featured twenty-one-year-old model and actress, Laetitia Casta, was selected in 1999 under somewhat controversial cir cumstances to serve as the model for France's Lady Liberty, Marianne, as the sym earlier icons Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve replacing bol of the French Republic. As Asterix and Vercingetorix became increas so too historical research and culture ingly indistinguishable, popular continue to intersect in numerous special issues ofmagazines devoted to the everpopular Gaulois,3 and Asterix sequels garner growing audiences. But what of the "other" side of the French identity coin as viewed

through the distant and darker lenses of the French colonial empire's inhabitants? What "lieu de memoire" took root in the imaginaire of the colonial others and what has itbecome under the critical gaze of the less sympathetic decolonized world? Bound to the highly articulate discourse of colonial hegemony, the account of the Gaulois' battle against Caesar traveled well beyond the hexagon and of the surrender of Vercingetorix in the late 1800s when "nos ancetres les Gaulois" were introduced into schoolrooms throughout France's colonial empire. For when France colo nized in far-flung places, it did so with the sense of both a "droit" and a "devoir" to disseminate France's greatness to others in a noble "mission civilisatrice."4 As such, the French colonial experience, while based on the asymmetry of the colonizer as the source of civilization, invited its newfound pupils to embrace a common ancestor, the Gaulois. By empha sizing a historical identity nourished by the events of great figures and schools events from the past, both the colonial and the metropolitan to inculcate the image of an ideal France capable of inspiring a sought (Leon 15). In 1866 the Governor General Mac-Mahon "conquete morale" defined this objective for the colonial classroom: "faire comprendre aux de cet empire dont ils sont les sujets" eleves la gloire de la puissance children in the French colonies may well have won While (Leon 21). dered exactly how they were related to remote French historical figures, not tomention the strikingly unfamiliar features of European geography that they studied, they nevertheless incorporated the facts of these ances tors and their exploits into the constructed national identity that colo to them. InMohamed Kacimi's play 1962, the nization had bequeathed

SCRIPTING AND POSTSCRIPTING FRANCOPHONE

IDENTITY 951

to local history, geography, and genealogy, the children of colo once turned adult, discovered new structures of identity that nization, allowed for both complicity and contestation. It is at this juncture of the In a post in-between that the transcultual experience ismade possible. and Vercingetorix, once fixed identity an the Gaulois colonial world, chors, found themselves subject to the critical gaze of the "other." With the subject position reversed, the post-colonial "gaze" is returned more and from a new critical distance. In retrospect, the very thought brazenly of the Gaulois of inviting Africans to identify themselves as descendants

reassures his Algerian students that "la Mediter French schoolmaster ranee traverse la France comme la Seine traverse Paris" (16), thus reduc an inconsequential river crossing. Denied ing a great sea of difference to access

may appear preposterous and, indeed, laughable.5 In fact, out of the mouths of these former pupils turned consummate is ap storytellers, the richly-layered legend of the Gaulois post-colonial as a new space of contestation and propriated, mimicked, and reinvested invention, lending itself to all manner of comic revisioning. Algerian hu morist Fellag explains his process for disrupting the authority of official more recent "Mon spectacle history, be it French colonial or Algerian: a contre-pied Tenseignement de l'histoire officielle. En desacra prend les mauvaises lisant l'histoire, j'essaie de bousculer habitudes de pensee qui subliment le passe" (147). Just as humor and parody invaded the seri ous documentary in his reincarnation as Asterix, side of Vercingetorix the process of post-colonial of history illustrates a simi appropriation veers from the ambivalence of colonial mim larly subversive path that

icry to the overt audacity of post-colonial mockery.6 As part of what Edward Said calls "the culture of resistance" (212), the assuming of to authority over "inaugural figures" affords creators an opportunity the reorganize and repossess history both for purposes of dismantling dominant culture's imprint as well as for inserting newly crafted para digms of self-determined identity. An important aspect of these new combinations and alternative histories is that they are often "based on breaking down the barriers between cultures" (Said 216). That effort is the artists intersect self-derision with anti especially evocative when colonial satire to deliver a sharply honed double-edged message. In the specific case of two contemporary performers, Cameroonian Francis Bebey and Algerian Mohamed Fellag, the rescripting of the story a of ''nos ancetres les Gaulois" inflec opens unique space of humanizing tions and reflections on the past as well as on the present. Moreover, each performer maintains a playful ambivalence which avoids pitting the ret "us." Bebey in rograde colonial "them" against a superior post-colonial his music and Fellag in his one-man comic routines use the distancing effects of humor and parody to humanize and blur the gulf that separates the self-aware "us" from the heavily scripted Gallic "them." Wielding comedy as themightiest arm of resistance and collective empowerment,

952 FRENCH REVIEW 78.5 as cul Bebey and Fellag engage in what Said identified "decolonizing tural resistance" (215). By constructing alternative discourses to reflect their own communal values, linguistic authenticity, and age-old identity sources, each creator reframes and transforms the one-size-fits-all French civilization story into a multifaceted reflective surface. In their comic recreations of history, Bebey and Fellag encompass the "soul" and wit of their respective peoples at the same time as they offer to their large and enthusiastic Francophone audiences a clever interweaving in of an extinct colonial past and a vibrant post-colonial present. Educated the French classroom, both Bebey and Fellag use French as their primary a language of creation, although Fellag, trilingual Kabyle from Algeria, had previously performed largely in dialectal Arabic before his exile to Paris in 1995. He describes his native tongue as a standard form of

Conseil de la Francophonie, among many other positions of influence. In and diplo addition to his work as a musician, composer, musicologist, was a prominent poet and wrote a dozen novels.7 For Bebey, mat, Bebey tradi his commitment to preserving and disseminating African musical tions was his way of reaching to the very depths of African identity, and instruments such as the Pygmy led to the rediscovery of ancient musical at the height of terrorist attacks, French flute. For Fellag, who left Algeria has become "le butin de paix" in a reformulation of Kateb Yacine's recog nition of French in post-revolutionary Algeria as "le butin de guerre" (Lire ef 125). Through his one-man shows, Fellag calls upon the humanizing iden fects of humor to communicate the unique, plural, and multilingual as he shoulders the difficult and tragic tity of Algerians at the same time refers to of Algeria in the 1990s. In "Les Algerie de Fellag," Mongin reality the precarious juggling act of the comic in both physical and moral terms, se tient sur un fil tenu, celui de la as an describing him "equilibriste qui frontiere: il s'aventure dans Tentre-deux, fragile et indetermine, qui se pare un pays d'un autre, un groupe ethnique d'un autre" (43). While both Bebey and Fellag reinvent their respective African identities based on the familiar model of the Gaulois, each strikes different comic chords and achieves a different resonance. In his song, "Si les Gaulois avaient su ...," Bebey half recites and half sings the story of the defeat of the naive voice of an Vercingetorix and the Gaulois. The story is told in African schoolboy sitting in class during the history lesson when Ver are reduced to starvation and ultimate defeat cingetorix and the Gaulois

of Tamazight "tamafrancarabe" (Berber), French, and Arabic. Similarly, was both a member of the Haut Conseil de la and a Bebey Francophonie staunch defender of national languages. Both creators embrace the French an important means of communicating across cultural and language as differences. Each is viewed as a popular spokesman of his cul linguistic ture and people. Before an untimely death in 2001, Bebey contributed in countless ways to promoting themusic of the francophone world, serving as director ofMusical Programming at UNESCO and member of theHaut

SCRIPTING AND POSTSCRIPTING FRANCOPHONE

IDENTITY 953

on the isolated plain of Alesia at the hands of the all-powerful Romans. as they sit passively the unfortunate Gaulois "sur la plaine" Watching while Caesar confidently prepares his victory, the young boy cannot con trol his impatience and outrage: Voyant
moi, la je crie

le danger qui les guette et, emporte par le recit de notre maitre,
aux Gaulois: "Mon Sauvez-vous, attraper.8 dieu, sauvez-vous vous avez que qu'est-ce tout de sinon suite, a rester les Romains

sur

plaine? vont vous

to temper his horror at the sight of the pitiful Gaulois who for Unable some unknown reason had decided to "rester sur la plaine" like sitting identification with the help ducks, the young boy reveals his momentary in the Gaulois' In exchange for his overinvestment less Gaulois. fate, the schoolboy is punished by his master: "J'ai crie si fort que notre maitre sa legon." Yet, the under m'a puni pour bavardage intempestif pendant point of the song is revealed in the boy's rejection of the master's lying scolding and the reaffirmation of his own interpretation of the historical moment, "Tant pis car moi je continue a penser que..." when he goes on to congratulate the cunning and superiority of a different strategy: that of "nous" the Africans. In fact, the distancing effect established between is the defining feature of the song's refrain: "nous" and "tes Gaulois" Si les Gaulois avaient su Seraient pas restes dans la plaine Si nos ancetres les blonds Gaulois
Avaient ete malins comme nous [...]

Bebey as the outsider invites his listeners to share his incredulity by com paring the African response to that of the powerless and inept Gaulois. What might they have done to be spared? Why flee, of course, toAfrica: "lis auraient loue un avion, ils seraient ailes en Afrique parce que dans la foret de Tarzan, Jules Cesar ne les auraient pas vus". While the song's lyrics tell the story on one level, the live performance of the song by Bebey is layered with the texture of voice, interaction with the audience, ironic inflections, laughter, and adlibs such as "avec Air Bel gique une fois"! The African audience reaction in the video also provides further insight into the bemused reaction of that public to the absurdity of the French history lesson inAfrican schools under the umbrella of the all inclusive possessive adjective "nos." For example, when Bebey describes the context of listening to "notre maitre [...] nous raconter un episode fort interessant sur la vie de nos ancetres les Gaulois," the audience audibly snickers at theword "nos," towhich Bebey adds sarcastically: "Un regal"! The laughter of the audience further conveys the collective memory of that less-than-interesting history lesson about those unlikely ancestors, the "blonds" and "blancs" Gaulois. In Bebey's retelling of theGallic defeat, the African boy's language reflects the specificity of African experience when he explains: "Vercingetorix et ses hommes tiennent une palabre tribale."

954 FRENCH REVIEW 78.5 the boy While sympathetic to the unfortunate plight of the Gaulois, remains aloof and confident that the "malins" Africans would have fared of empathy, the young schoolboy still puzzles better. Despite a modicum over how such a famous tribe of fierce warriors could have let themselves fall into such a transparent trap. By establishing an even greater comic dis tance from the Gaulois, Bebey ends his song with a resoundingly sarcastic in the Africans' perspective laugh that confirms the audience's complicity over the Gaulois' self-delusion. Bebey's Africans have of self-preservation scored a post-colonial victory over themighty Gaulois. is used less explicitly and more for For Fellag, the story of the Gaulois

In his comic routine, Djurdjurassique contrastive purposes. Bled,9 Fellag sets out to retell the Algerian version of the birth of a people, in this case, that of the pre-Arab peoples of North Africa, the Berbers. Fellag appro in order to rescript a priates the glorious and ancient history of theGaulois one unrivaled by any later tribe more ancient tribal far myth of origins, or aspiring civilization. In creating "nos ancetres les Berberes," Fellag asserts a pre-Gaul and prehistoric origin that purports to defy time itself. of In response to all known scientific evidence regarding the appearance the firsthumans on earth, Fellag counters: "Oui, c'est vrai, il n'y avait pas d'etres humains du temps des dinosaures, mais nos ancetres les Berberes, si"! (14). Through exaggeration ad absurdum, Fellag places the Berbers in stew of life's existence even before the dawn of time in themicroscopic was the legendary impatience it building blocks. By way of explanation, of the Berbers that accounts for their precocious and irrepressible arrival on the stage of human existence: Toutes ces larves-la, elles etaient tranquilles, elles attendaient Involu tion. Elles attendaient Darwin! Mais les larves qui etaient programmees dre troismilliards d'annees veut tout de suite'! (15) Once
pour devenir nos ancetres les Berberes: 'Na! na! na! ...on ne va

pour devenir des Berberes, nous! Nous,

pas

atten

on

the origin story of the resolutely impatient Berbers is established, in order to recount the experi returns to themodel of the Gaulois Fellag ence of war and resistance to foreign invaders. In contrast to the exalted heroism of Vercingetorix and the orderly unfolding of French civilization as told in the school books, Fellag recasts the Berber version through the lens of parody. Rather than coordinated resistance and courageous oppo sition to the enemy, the Berbers are cowardly and naturally prone to to waves of invaders who sought to influence and anarchy. Impervious "civilize" them, the Berbers were so resistant that their greatest line of to seemingly effortlessly exas defense came from theway theymanaged their enemies. The valiant invaders would eventually just give up perate and leave the crazy Berbers to their own devices ("on les a rendus fous," were conspic 20). For example, when the Romans arrived, the highlands the highly uninhabited with no living creature in sight. Unlike uously under the of the Gaulois visible and coordinated military opposition

SCRIPTING AND POSTSCRIPTING FRANCOPHONE

IDENTITY 955

a the Berbers relied on leadership of single, heroic leader Vercingetorix, and their signature cowardice. In response to the arrival disorganization of the Roman army, they dropped to the ground blending inwith the soil as the Romans came marching in on top of them,
nos les ancetres, guerriers sont ocres?on le sol?ils comme des berberes, a l'impression C'etait comme que ils ont le sol la meme continue couleur [...]. Des que cen

taines de milliers Les Romains Even

ventre,

de guerriers berberes
cameleons.

le debut

sont allonges par terre, sur le

du camouflage moderne.

leurmarchaient dessus

[...]. (21)

were no match for those of the Romans, the though theirweapons were clever warriors. to their ingenious military In addition Berbers strategy of camouflage (defying the second tenet of Caesar's legendary veni, vidi, vici), they relied on "armes ecologiques:" biting, scratching, and olive oil on the road to disrupt the forward march of the Roman pouring army. Finally, the wily Berbers resorted to themost deadly "armes bac released Rabelaisian style in the form of farts emitted after teriologiques" the ingestion of vast quantities of "cucurbitacees" the (22). Unlike in Bebey's song, the Gaulois who waited "dans la plaine" strategically rambunctious Berbers of Fellag went about their normal disorderly life. For example, when they climbed up the hill near the Roman encamp ment with all of their wives, goats, children, pots, and pans, and pro to make a racket all night long, the Romans ceeded could not get a rest before the morning's minute's call to battle. In the end, the unruly in the idiom of Berbers proved too much for the Romans who concluded an Asterix balloon, "Ah, merdum! ?a y est, on s'en va" (24). Unlike the noble warriors of Gaul imbued with an elevated sense of duty to defeat the enemy in the most glorious way possible, the simple and undisciplined Berbers did what they could with what they had. As with Bebey's Africans, the Berbers relied heavily on themost basic of sur vival instincts along with the celebrated systeme D to keep them out of harm's way. Both Fellag's and Bebey's unheroic versions of history af firm basic cultural values that are not allied to any nationalist goals, reli In fact, the Kabyle Fellag's gious convictions, or political ideologies. version of the Berber origin myth begins well before the invasion by the thereby denigrating the importance of the Arab-Muslim identity layer of Algeria while celebrating the uncontested birthright of the Berber peoples. According to Fellag, the Berbers never resisted the Arab invaders for one simple reason:
Les nous, Arabes, on ne ils nous les a pas ont vus eus venir [...] [...]. comme ils ont la meme avec couleur nous. Ils se sont que Petit a

Arabs,

petit, jusqu'a maintenant nous. (24)

ou on ne sait plus qui c'est eux, et qui c'est

melanges

While Fellag's retelling of Algerian identity ismore clearly grounded in the contemporary sociopolitical experience of Algeria, both Bebey and

956 FRENCH REVIEW 78.5 Fellag seek to reframe the story of ancestral origin and national character in such a way as to invite the "us" and the "them" to put aside differ ences of experience and origin and share in the global community of two civilization stories at once, they laughter. Telling poke fun at each, the naive heroism of Vercingetorix with the singularly un contrasting heroic but superior strategy of the subaltern peoples. Both artists disarm to produce a reconciliation and a blur difference through comic means ring of the sharp dividing line between "us" and "them." Peter Brook ex in thisway: "II [Fellag] leur plains Fellag's success with French audiences sa propre realite et cette realite devient son la leur?avec presente son absurdite, sa In a tribute ambiguite, {Djurdjurassique 10). profondeur" to Bebey at the time of his death, French Minister of Culture Catherine

similarly extolled his poetic and linguistic skills: "son amour et son usage ludique de la langue frangaise, qui en ont fait un artisan mer veilleux de la rencontre des cultures" (Sadaka 71). each performer uses the full humanity of comedy to enrich Moreover, the sense of shared experience that removes audiences, ifonly temporar from the divisive realities of the present (poverty, wars, immigration, ily, racism, etc.). For Fellag, "Thumour algerien repose sur Tautoderision [...]. avons tant de problemes que Thumour est le seul moyen de les Nous exorciser" (148). At the intersection of historical fact, cultural memory, and absurdist humor, Bebey and Fellag draw audiences away from the official constructions of the past toward a liberated and renewed sense of belonging to a more joyful future. Rather than reinforcing dividing lines of history and identity politics, they afford us the comic distance to laugh and be released from the vice grip hold thatwe sometimes allow history to exert over us. However, must also be noted that the target of Fellag's it satirical version of Algerian story and identity ricochets off the Gaulois hits Algeria in a deliberate way. While "Si les Gaulois avaient su ..." takes deliberate aim at the failed French model thereby affirming the Africans' for survival, Fellag sets his sights equally on the defec superior strategy tive Algerian response to explosive events. If, on the one hand, Fellag's affectionate self-deprecation and helpless clown-like appearance help to soften the harsh reality of the story of Algeria that he tells, it may run the risk, on the other hand, of reinforcing caricatures and promoting racist attitudes toward an already beleaguered minority in France. Fellag coun ters his critics by accusing them of being racist in their refusal to allow "le droit d'avoir un regard critique sur lui-meme, car ce pri Algerians to serait Tapanage des peuples dits superieurs" (180). According vilege Denise Brahimi, this risk iswell worth taking precisely because Fellag's tough realities that endearing comic style enables him to communicate few could express so effectively: Tasca a l'egard de son Fellag temoigne d'autant de lucidite que de sympathie modele; et il utilise le credit que lui donne la drolerie pour faire passer une idee a laquelle les Algeriens se sont faits difficilement, a savoir que

SCRIPTING AND POSTSCRIPTING FRANCOPHONE

IDENTITY 957 du dehors mais

la violence dans leur pays n'est pas toujours venue qu'elle existe aussi incontestablement au dedans. (149)

a mul Through the engaging act of rescripting history and performing tifaceted identity, creative artists such as Francis Bebey and Mohamed new ways of reflecting Fellag travel into the recesses of history to extract and representing the complex contours of the post-colonial present. In the first instance, their irreverent parodies of the past can serve to disrupt habitudes de pensee and undo what Fellag identified as "tes mauvaises subliment le passe" 147). For Fellag, laughter is the (Djurdjurassique qui ultimate arm of resistance against hatred and senseless violence: "Je suis un terroriste qui tue par le rire" he exclaims. In the second instance, as true artists they succeed in transforming the past into a living art of the present. When Peter Brook called theater 'Tart du present", he empha sized both the moment of performance and its consequences: "On y va vivre quelque mieux vivre ce qui chose avec des autres?pour pour y to revisit the univocal and est" (Djurdjurassique 9). By inviting audiences canonical story of "nos ancetres les Gaulois" transformed through com edy, Bebey and Fellag communicate across differences of time, identity, and historical experience. In the process, they offer a new identity path that originates in what cultural critic Homi Bhabha termed the "Third Space," where "we may elude the politics of polarity and emerge as the others of our selves" (39). In the community of shared laughter, audi ences and performers alike are granted the freedom to laugh both with and at others as well as at themselves. Grinnell College (IA) Notes
JPierreNora's torical most Vol. notable Les Lieux de memoire provides related to key French related to the Gaulois the most of his comprehensive compendium sites, events, and concepts. The in chapter on "Francs et Gaulois" 3 (273-315). in a "fiche pedagogique"

source material entries

personages, are Pomian's

periodi Monde and TDC (Textes et documents pour la classe). cals, Le Frangais dans le was 4The ideology of the civilizing mission elaborated in an 1885 by Jules Ferry who to fellow French lawmakers "Je dis qu'il y a pour elles [les races supe speech explained: rieures] un droit parce qu'il y a un devoir pour elles. Elles ont le devoir de civiliser les races inferieures"

(65) as part of the dossier "Asterix: film,mythe et histoire". to Vercingetorix have and/or Asterix and the Gaulois 3Special dossiers devoted news Le Point and L'tvenement, and in recently in issues of magazines, pedagogical

1, and the chapter on Alesia named among 2Le Frangais dans le Monde featured "Asterix,

hauts lieux in Vol. lieu de memoire"

appeared

Gaulois."

(Blanchard and Bancel 17). in other cases, as for Zair Kedadouche in Za'ir le Gaulois, the cliched 5However, identity label was chosen to affirm and celebrate the republican ideal of successful integration for the immigrant child of the "bidonville" who realized the promise of "la vie d'un petit 6Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin provide further explorations of this relationship between

958 FRENCH REVIEW 78.5

colonizer-colonized in the definition colonial writing (139-42). 7See the official website of "mimicry" and its relationship tomockery in post

of the Association Francis Bebey at <http://francois.granger.free. and for the special issue of Africultures 49 (2002) devoted to "Francis Bebey, fr/bebey/>; see <http://www.africultures.com/revue_africultures/articles/som rhomme-orchestre," maire.asp?no_dossier=49> 8The lyrics to Bebey's (19) and produced by Espace song appear mentioned in the TDC was recorded issue of "Les Enjeux de la francophonie" on a video entitled Afrique francophone avaient su..." performed

the performance

the history of the ^Djurdjurassique Bled is available both in print and on video. Situating the prehistoric Berbers at a time before the dinosaurs, title evokes lurassic Fellag's parodic period with themountainous region in the fiercely independent region of Kabylia dominated by the Djurdjura mountains. the Arabic Fellag substitutes "Bled" is also used on Fellag's Djurdjurassique Instead word of the visionary promise of an elaborate theme "park," to complete for village "bled" the Algerian reference. in French to denote a remote, godforsaken place. For more see <http://membres.lycos.fr/choukl/fellagl.htm> /journal/1999/1999-09/1999-09-ll/1999-09-11014.html>

by Bebey is included inhis CD ParisDougou (DisquesOzileka, 1990).

Francophone

in 1992. The

song "Si les Gaulois

pejoratively Bled,

and

<http://www.humanite.presse.fr

Works
Afrique francophone. Videocassette. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, 2000. London: Routledge, Benamou,

Cited

1992. Espace Francophone, and Helen Tiffin. Post-Colonial Asterix". L'Evenement

Studies: 743

The Key Concepts. fevrier

1990. "Si les Gaulois avaient su..." Paris Dougou. Disques Ozileka, The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994. 1998. Bancel. De I 'indigene a I'immigre. Paris: Gallimard, Blanchard, Pascal, and Nicolas et derision". humour Subversion du reel: strategies Brahimi, Denise. "Tragedie algerienne, et Birgit esthetiques dans la litterature algerienne contemporaine. Ed. Beate Burtscher-Bechter Paris: L'Harmattan, 2001.143-55. Mertz-Baumgartner. TDC (Textes et documents pour la classe) 612 (18 mars 1992). "Les Enjeux de la francophonie". fevrier 1999): L'Evenement 743 (28 janvier-3 Anatomie d'un mythe "Dossier: francais". 58-65. Bebey, Francis. Bhabha, Homi. Faure, Michel. _ _ Fellag. France Magazine Winter 1993-94: 7. "Gallic Symbols." Bled. Paris: J.C. Lattes, 1999. Djurdjurassique . Passion Pilote, 1999. Bled 1998. Videocassette. Djurdjurassique . "Questions a ..." Lire novembre 1999:125. Asterix: film, mythe et histoire". Le Frangais dans le Monde 303 (mars-avril 1999):

1999):3.

Georges-Marc.

"Le

Symptome

(28 janvier-3

"Dossier: 53-68. "Francis "La Gaule

Dossier Africultures 49 (2002). Bebey: rhomme-orchestre". en finir avec les legendes". TDC de Vercingetorix: (Textes et documents classe) 670 (15-28 fevrier 1994).

pour

la

1962. Paris: Actes Sud, 1998. Kacimi, Mohamed. 1996. Zair. Za'ir leGaulois. Paris: Grasset, Kedadouche, et les rapports interethniques "L'Ecole Leon, Antoine. en France et en Algerie. d'Algerie dans Tenseignement 1992.15-21. CNDP,

dans l'Algerie Ed. Abdeljalil

coloniale". Laamirie

La Guerre et al. Paris:

"Les Algerie de Fellag". Esprit 288 (2002): 43-54. Mongin, Olivier. Nora, Pierre. Les Lieux de memoire. Ed. Pierre Nora. 3 vols. Paris: Gallimard, Le Point 26 Janvier 2001: 54r-65. "Dossier: Les Gaulois".

1992.

SCRIPTING AND POSTSCRIPTING FRANCOPHONE

Pomian, Sadaka, "Francs Krzysztof. 1992.40-105. Gallimard, Edmond. "Hommage et Gaulois". a

IDENTITY 959
Vol. 1. Paris: dans le

Les Lieux de memoire. Ed. Pierre Nora. artiste et diplomate".

... Francis

W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. La Civilisation frangaise en evolution I. St. Onge. and Ronald Steele, Ross, Susan St. Onge, 1996. and Heinle, Boston: Heinle on a Le Point 26 Janvier 2001: "Comment Theis, Laurent. fabrique lemythe Vercingetorix". 64-65. Said, Edward

Monde 316 (2001):71.

Bebey,

Le Frangais