Alex Hughes. Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture

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348

Suleiman, S. (1987) ‘As Is: The First Issue of

Tel quel is Published’ , in D.Hollier (ed.) A

New History of French Literature, Cam-

bridge: Harvard University Press.

literary prizes

Literary prizes (prix) and competitions

(concours) have long been a feature of the

French cultural scene, and have proliferated in

the present century (there are currently around

1,500). The former are awarded to published

texts, while unpublished works and manuscripts

are entered for the latter. Juries—often com-

posed of former prizewinners (lauréats)—play

a central role in the selection process. Their

choices ensure that a book will attract the at-

tention of the media and will become a best seller

(sums of money actually offered as prize awards

are often merely nominal). Unsurprisingly, se-

lections are regularly the focus of controversy.

Prizes are awarded for all kinds of texts, in-

cluding those relating to the following areas:

archaeology, art history, autobiography, car-

toons, children’s writing, criticism, documen-

tary writing, history, humour, law, philosophy,

photography, poetry, new writing, non-French

francophone writing, science fiction, short-story

writing, theatre, and translation. Some of the

most prestigious French literary prizes are the:

• Femina (created in 1904, with an allwoman

jury and two categories: the best French

novel of the year, and the best foreign novel

translated into French)

• Goncourt (created in 1903, and awardable

to works belonging to any category of liter-

ary prose, although novels usually win it)

• Interallié (created in 1930 and given to

works of literary journalism)

• Médicis (created in 1958, along with the

related prix Médicis étranger and the prix

Médicis essai)

• Renaudot

• Grand Prix du Roman.

ALEX HUGHES

See also: francophone writing (fiction, poetry):

Belgium; francophone writing (fiction, po-

etry): DOM-TOMs; francophone writing (fic-

tion, poetry): Indian Ocean; francophone writ-

ing (fiction, poetry): Switzerland; publishing/

l’édition

Livre de poche

Book series

In 1953, Henri Filipacchi (1900–61) launched

the series of cheap paperbacks known as ‘Le

Livre de poche’ for the publisher Hachette.

The first two-franc edition was Pierre Benoit’s

novel Königsmark. Between 1953 and the end

of 1993, 9,500 different titles and 720 million

copies had already been published. The

bestselling were the Larousse de poche in 1968

(6.9 million) and Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand

Meaulnes in 1962 (4.28 million).

MARTYN CORNICK

Further reading

Bennington, G. (1988), Lyotard: Writing the

Event, Manchester: Manchester University

Press (an authoritative presentation of

Lyotard’s strategies).

Lyotard, Jean-François

350

Television channel

This private television company, funded from

advertising revenue, came into existence in

1987. Its predecessor, TV6, had been estab-

lished as a dedicated music channel by the So-

cialist government one year earlier. M6 pro-

vides a general entertainment service with an

emphasis on comedy, feature films and televi-

sion series, much of it imported from the

United States. Its principal shareholders are

the Groupe Lyonnaise des Eaux and the Lux-

embourg media company, the Compagnie

Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion. The chan-

nel diversified into programme production and

other media-related activities in the early

1990s.

RAYMOND KUHN

Further reading

Looseley, D.L. (1993) ‘Paris Versus the Prov-

inces: Cultural Decentralization Since

1945’, in M.Cook (ed.) French Culture

Since 1945, London: Longman (traces the

maisons’ history).

Malle, Louis

b. 1932, Thumeries/Lille;

d. 1995, Los Angeles, USA

Director

A film-maker for the most part disregarded

by critics in his own country (until a belated

César awarded in the year of his death), Malle

is one of the rare French directors to make a

successful career in the USA, where his fine

analysis of human beings has won him inter-

national acclaim (e.g. Atlantic City, USA in

1980). His ability to work with actors is a hall-

mark of his work, as is his careful mise-en-

scène. Malle’s work is at the vanguard of a

moral cinema treating difficult subjects before

their time; for example, issues surrounding

sexuality (incest, infidelity, child pornography)

and political taboos such as the Occupation

(in Lacombe Lucien of 1973 and Au Revoir

les enfants of 1987) and the Algerian war.

KEITH READER

Further reading

Lacouture, J. (1973) André Malraux, Paris:

Éditions du Seuil (biography).

Looseley, D.L. (1995) The Politics of Fun:

Cultural Policy and Debate in Contempo-

rary France, Oxford: Berg (examines

Malraux the minister).

Malraux act

This law, passed in 1962 and named after

André Malraux (then Minister of Cultural Af-

fairs), legislated for the protection, develop-

ment and restructuring of historically signifi-

cant urban areas (secteurs sauvegardés), in the

face of modern urban expansion. The act in-

fluenced conservation strategies adopted by

other European governments of the 1960s,

notably that of the UK.

ALEX HUGHES

See also: architecture; conservation zones;

renovation projects

Man Ray

b. 1890, Philadelphia, USA;

d. 1976, Paris

Photographer and artist

Trained as a painter, Man Ray discovered the

work of Duchamp and Picabia at the 1913

Armory Show. The following year he began

taking photographs, originally to reproduce his

paintings. He went to Paris in 1921 and was

part of the Dadaist and then Surrealist move-

ments, whose members he famously photo-

graphed. His work includes such celebrated

photographic images as Ingres’s Violin (Le

Violon d’Ingres) of 1924 and Tears (Larmes)

from 1930. He spent 1940 to 1951 in the

United States, where he had several one-man

shows, painted a great deal and, again, photo-

graphed many of the great writers and paint-

ers of the period. He was the inventor of sev-

eral photographic techniques, particularly us-

ing light effects such as solarizations and

‘rayographs’, a personal variant of the

photogram.

DEBRA KELLY

Further reading

Barsoux, J.-L. and Lawrence, P. (1990) Man-

agement in France, London: Cassell Edu-

cational (an overview of management prac-

tices in France).

Manessier, Alfred

b. 1911, St-Ouen

Artist

Alfred Manessier, a painter usually associ-

ated with the École de Paris, demonstrated

the clear influence of Cubism and Fauvism

until the end of World War II. Returning to

Paris from the Normandy coast after the Oc-

cupation, he reasserted his pantheistic

reification of nature. The extraordinary syn-

thesis of structured surface picture plane de-

rived from Cubism, with the vibrant colour

rendered admissible by the Fauves, gave rise

to his distinctive ‘stained-glass’ style, and

provided the vehicle for an abstraction more

accurately designated ‘nonfiguration’. Sub-

ject matter for these vast sublime paintings is

divided between the ecstasies of religious pas-

sion and the grandeur of the sea. Avoiding

literal figuration, these paintings are none the

less profoundly humanist and, above all, af-

fective.

SIMEON HUNTER

See also: theatre

Manet, Éduardo

354

Further reading

Bradby, D. (1991) Modern French Drama

1940–1990, Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press (essential reading).

Mano Negra

Musicians

A leading indie group of the 1990s at the con-

fluence of rockabilly, hip-hop and punk, rap,

raï’, salsa and many more styles, which they

mix with panache. Singing in French, Arabic,

English and Spanish, they are generous, un-

conventional and exuberant performers on the

world circuit. Their latest products are Puta’s

Fever (1990) and Casa Babylone (1994).

GÉRALD POULET

Further reading

Szarka, J. (1992) Business in France: An

Mano Negra

355

Introduction to the Economic and Social

Context, London: Pitman (the chapter on in-

dustrial policy and industrial development

gives an overall view of the French industry).

Taddeï, D. and Coriat, B. (1993) Made in

France: L’Industrie française dans la com-

petition mondiale, Paris: Le Livre de Poche

(an official report, giving an advanced

analysis of current industrial problems).

Marais plan

The area of Right Bank Paris known as the

Marais is one of the showpieces of post-World

War II urban conservation in France, but at

the same time it is where the political weight

of popular protest about social change accom-

panying building restoration has been great-

est. It is an area of 126 hectares designated a

secteur sauvegardé in 1965, at which time its

legacy of valuable classical architecture from

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had

become much degraded by subdivision, ne-

glect and the introduction of industrial activi-

ties. Many street façades have now been re-

stored by the conservation project known as

the Marais plan, and new economic activities

have been introduced. However, many of the

indigenous residents have been forced to leave.

Rents and property prices have risen as a con-

sequence of the conservation work, which has

changed the popular perception of the area

from a slum to one of urban chic.

ROGER KAIN

See also: conservation zones; Malraux act;

renovation projects

Marceau, Félicien

b. 1913, Cortemberg, Belgium

Playwright, essayist and novelist,

real name Louis Carette

A member of the Academic Française since

1975, and the author of popular plays written

during the 1950s and 1960s and directed by

Barsacq, these include L’Oeuf (The Egg) and

La Bonne Soupe (Good Soup).

ANNIE SPARKS

See also: theatre

Marceau, Marcel

b. 1923, Strasbourg

Mime artist,

real name Marcel Mangel

An internationally famed mime artist, and the

founder of a troupe which performed his

mimodrames, including Le Manteau (The

Coat), adapted from Gogol, and Mont-de-

Piété. Due to lack of subsidy, he moved to

Germany, where he developed his renowned

solo routines. The city of Paris now finances

his mime school.

ANNIE SPARKS

See also: theatre

Marceau, Sophie

b. 1966, Paris

Actor

Her career was launched by Pinoteau’s suc-

cessful La Boum (1980) followed by La Boum

2 (1982), where she typified the 1980s French

adolescent, and for which she received a César

as most promising actress. Pinoteau picked up

her ‘story’ in L’Étudiante (1988). Although she

has acted, somewhat unsuccessfully, in

auteurist films (such as Pialat’s Police of 1985),

her roles have been mostly confined to big-

budget films, like Corneau’s Fort Saganne

(1984), with a penchant for historical films—

for example, de Broca’s Chouans! (1988) and

Marceau, Sophie

356

Tavernier’s La Fille de d’Artagnan (1994). Her

part in Mel Gibson’s Oscared Braveheart

(1996) made her an international star.

PHIL POWRIE

See also: theatre

Major works

Maréchal, M. (1974) La Mise en théâtre,

Paris: Union Générale d’Éditions

(Maréchal’s theories).

Marcellin, Raymond

357

Marie-Claire

Women’s magazine

One of today’s best-selling women’s maga-

zines in the haut de gamme (luxury) monthly

category, Marie-Claire is aimed at young, pro-

fessional women.

It was first launched as a weekly magazine,

in 1937, by the powerful Prouvost press group.

In 1939, the magazine was moved to Lyon, its

distribution restricted to the Vichy zone. The

extension of Nazi rule to the south forced the

magazine to cease production in 1943. After

1945, Marie-Claire, along with other publica-

tions which had continued under Vichy rule,

was banned. However, 1954 saw the relaunch

of the new Marie-Claire as a luxury but af-

fordable monthly, whose professed aim was

to promote the interests of modern, young

women who had obtained the vote in 1944.

The magazine’s luxurious appearance and

energetic style appealed to women under 35.

Its mixture of fashion and beauty items, style

and culture pages—together with practical pages

on cooking, health and home decoration—made

for an approach which worked. By 1957, its

annual circulation figure had exceeded a mil-

lion. However, by 1963, readers were begin-

ning to tire of the same format and content and

this marked the beginning of declining circula-

tion figures. By 1968, it was clear that fresher,

bolder ideas were needed and in this respect the

magazine gave a big nod to new feminist ideas

which were gaining currency among young,

working women, who had started to question

traditional feminine roles. A major innovation

was the inclusion of a substantial supplement

entitled Femmes, which contained news about

feminist organizations, events and literature.

This approach proved successful for a part of

the 1970s, boosting circulation to an extent, but

it failed to restore magazine sales to the levels

of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Furthermore,

it was an approach which was not to last into

the 1980s, as a media ‘backlash’ against femi-

nism was to emerge.

From the mid- to late 1970s, Marie-Claire,

in common with all other categories of the

periodical press, saw sales decrease again as

competition from other media, within the con-

text of a stagnating economy, drove readers

towards alternative sources of information

and entertainment. In the 1980s and 1990s,

the magazine has maintained its position

within the category of luxury women’s maga-

zines, despite the threat of legal liquidation in

December 1993 from which it was saved by

the Marie-Claire Album group in 1994. Since

then, its yearly circulation has stabilized be-

tween 500,000 and 600,000. As far as style

and content are concerned, the magazine has

stayed with certain well-developed themes:

fashion and beauty, the beautifully illustrated

reportages à l’étranger (overseas reports), in-

terviews with famous people and topical so-

cial issues treated through personal testimo-

nies. Added to these are items on horoscopes,

recipes, home, holidays, arts and so on. Along

with other magazines in its category, Marie-

Claire has remained an important channel of

information within the cultural universe of

French women.

KHURSHEED WADIA

See also: feminism (movements/groups); wom-

en’s magazines.

marriage/cohabitation

While it remains the dominant model of fam-

ily formation, marriage has become a less sta-

ble relationship in France, and it is gradually

being replaced by unmarried cohabitation.

Since the early 1970s, marriage rates have

fallen consistently. By the mid-1990s, France

displayed one of the lowest rates in Europe,

with 4.4 marriages per 1,000 inhabitants.

Fewer of the marriages being contracted were

for the first time: more people were remarry-

ing. Couples were also delaying getting mar-

ried, with the result that mean age at marriage

had reached 26.4 years for women and 28.4

years for men. Even though more marriages

were ending in divorce, the vast majority of

men (84 per cent) and women (88 per cent)

marriage/cohabitation