Alex Hughes. Encyclopedia of Contemporary French Culture

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448

cameras and personal stereos may be tried and

purchased.

MARTYN CORNICK

See also: comic strips/cartoonists; literary jour-

nals; literary prizes

Further reading

Debray, R. (1979) Le Pouvoir intellectuel en

France, Paris: Ramsay. Translated D.Macey

Writers, Teachers, Celebrities, London:

Verso (examines publishing in the context

of twentieth-century French intellectual his-

tory and society).

INSEE (1996) Données sociales, Paris: INSEE

(for studies on consumer spending).

Martin, H.-J., Chartier, R. and Vivet, J.-P. (eds)

(1986) Histoire de l’édition française, vol.

4, Le Livre concurrencé 1900–1950, Paris:

Promodis (indispensable for the interwar

period).

Quid (1995) Paris: Laffont (encyclopedia con-

taining the latest publishing statistics).

publishing/l’édition

449

Queneau, Raymond

b. 1903, Le Havre;

d. 1976, France

Writer and literary theorist

One of the most influential novelists and liter-

ary theorists in the postwar period, Queneau

had already acquired a solid reputation in the

interwar years and the Occupation through

novels such as Le Chiendent (Couchgrass)

from 1933, and Pierrot mon ami (Pierrot My

Friend) of 1942. A former Surrealist, he was

part of the renewal of influence of the group

in the early postwar years. Through works like

Zazie dans le métro (1959) and 1965’s The

Blue Flowers (Les Fleurs bleues), he combined

French spoken language with a rigorous math-

ematical structure to create complex and in-

tellectually demanding fiction, theoreticized in

his two collections of essays, Bâtons, chiffres

et lettres (Sticks, Figures and Letters) and

Bords (Edges), published in 1953 and 1960

respectively.

NICHOLAS HEWITT

Further reading

Balibar, E. and Wallerstein, I. (1988) Race,

nation, classe: les identités ambiguës, Paris:

La Découverte.

Silverman, M. (1992) Deconstructing the Na-

tion: Immigration, Racism and Citizenship

in Modern France, London: Routledge

(analysis of links between ‘race’, culture

and nation in contemporary France).

Taguieff, P.-A. (1988) La Force du préjugé:

essai sur le racisme et ses doubles, Paris: La

Découverte (analysis of the overlapping fea-

tures of racist and anti-racist discourses in

the modern period).

——(ed.) (1991) Face au racisme, 2 vols, Paris:

La Découverte (diverse contributions on

theory and practice of racism and anti-rac-

ism).

Wieviorka, M. (1991) L’Espace du racisme,

Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

radio (private/free)

The law of 9 November 1981 authorized the

creation of private local radio (radios libres)

in France, so heralding the end of the state

monopoly of broadcasting. President

Mitterrand’s blow for freedom was intended

to encourage non-profit-making local associa-

tions, hence the initial prohibition of advertis-

ing. The law of 1 August 1984 changed all

this by belatedly allowing la pub. By 1989,

there were 3,000 private local radio stations

in France, transmitting on FM. They have be-

come the victims of their own commercial suc-

cess, however, and have gradually organized

themselves into national networks or been

taken over by larger concerns like RTL or Eu-

rope 1. With very few exceptions, while re-

maining private, they can no longer be con-

sidered very free or local.

These new private radio stations are spe-

cialist (mainly in popular music) and increas-

ingly eating into the general-interest (both

public and private) audiences. NRJ has be-

come France’s third most popular radio sta-

tion (according to 1995 estimates), with an

11 per cent share. Originally targeting the 15–

34 age range, it has managed to attract older

listeners by diversifying its offerings (e.g. quiz

programmes). Three other privately owned

stations of a similar nature also attract over 5

per cent of the national audience: Fun Radio

(France’s sixth most popular station), very

much for the teenager; Nostalgie (seventh) tar-

geting the 25–45 year-olds, offering game

shows and appealing very much to the emo-

tions; Skyrock (ninth), the noisiest and most

provocative of these music stations. Another

successful private station is Chérie FM (elev-

enth), which targets adults who like tuneful

and romantic music. In twelfth position comes

RFM, which concentrates on traditional fa-

vourites such as Piaf, Brel and Brassens.

The other privately owned FM network

radio (private/free)

452

stations in France cover a variety of interests.

Fourvière, based in Lyon, is an ecumenical

Christian radio station. Montmartre targets the

over-50s and specializes in unashamedly old-

fashioned French songs; it has recently been

taken over by RMC (Radio Monte-Carlo, the

périphérique station created during World War

II, occupying tenth place in the national listen-

ing league table). Radio Classique specializes

in classical music. TSF targets those who enjoy

listening to a wide range of music and songs,

from traditional French songs to folk and hard

rock. Finally, mention should be made of Sud

Radio, the smallest of the non-specialized ra-

dios périphériques, transmitting from Andorra,

but with studios in Toulouse. Created in 1939,

it has had a chequered career.

In 1989, to encourage genuine private lo-

cal radio, the government introduced legisla-

tion offering state subsidies to stations com-

plying with CSA regulations and in receipt of

an advertising income not exceeding 20 per

cent of their turnover. On a less positive note,

more recent government legislation (January

1996) insists that private popular music sta-

tions (NRJ, Skyrock, RFM, Europe 2, RTL 2)

must broadcast a minimum of 40 per cent of

francophone songs, in a vain attempt to stem

the tide of Anglo-Saxon culture.

ALAN PEDLEY

See also: francophone radio: Europe; radio

(state-owned); television

Further reading

Boon, M., Ryst, A. and Vinay, C. (1990)

Lexique de l’audiovisuel, Paris: Dalloz (a

mine of information).

Guide de la radio (1995), Paris: Télérama.

radio (state-owned)

About 20 per cent of the total radio audience

in France listens to some of the 466,000 hours

of programmes broadcast each year by Radio

France, the state-owned company. It was cre-

ated in 1974 when the ORTF was divided into

seven autonomous organizations. Although

the state officially enjoyed a broadcasting mo-

nopoly until 1982, a number of francophone

radio stations, known collectively as radios

périphériques, operating from outside France’s

frontiers (notably RTL, Europe 1 and RMC),

had been available to the bulk of the French

listening public through long-wave transmis-

sion since the 1940s and 1950s. Radio has

thus been a highly competitive business in

France for a long time. Since the creation of

local radio stations, both public and private,

brought about by the decentralizing policies

of the early 1980s, competition has become

even keener. The overall tendency is indeed

increasingly a move away from generalist,

national (whether state-owned or private) ra-

dio, to localized, specialized stations.

Radio France, whose chairman and manag-

ing director (currently Jean Boyon) is ap-

pointed by the CSA (Conseil Supérieur de

l’Audiovisuel), runs several centrally operated

stations from its Paris base. It is financed al-

most entirely (88.5 per cent in 1992) by the li-

cence fee, la redevance (700F in 1997). Com-

mercial advertising is not allowed on state-

owned radio in France, but collective and pub-

lic-interest advertising is authorized and con-

tributed 4.6 per cent of Radio France’s 1992

revenue. Its headquarters in the impressive

Maison de la Radio houses sales and informa-

tion services, as well as a Museum of Radio. Its

main mission is to provide a public service for

the French listening public, through entertain-

ment and information. It also supports two na-

tional orchestras, the Orchestre National de

France and Orchestre Philharmonique de Ra-

dio France, as well as a choir, the Choeur de

Radio France. It has a full-time personnel

of over 3,100, 14 per cent of whom are jour-

nalists.

Radio France’s flagship, enjoying 11.2 per

cent of the national audience according to a

recent estimate, is France-Inter. Created in 1947

as Paris-Inter, it assumed its present title in

1964. It is a general-interest station, offering a

wide range of programmes, each of which has

radio (state-owned)

453

its regular daily or weekly slot. A daily dose of

satirical humour is offered at 11 a.m. (French

time) on weekdays by Rien a cirer; Le Tel-

ephone sonne provides informed discussion

(with listener participation) of an issue of cur-

rent concern at 7.20 p.m. on weekdays; Les

Guetteurs du siècle, an in-depth interview of a

personality, is hosted by Jacques Chancel every

Sunday at 6 p.m.; Le Masque et la plume of-

fers a lively debate on the arts on Sunday eve-

nings at 10 p.m.; En avant la zizique champi-

ons the French song just after midnight on

weekdays. A number of these programmes (in

addition to Inter-Treize, a daily news pro-

gramme) are broadcast in the presence of a live

audience. France-Inter broadcasts twenty-four

hours a day on long wave (ensuring good re-

ception well beyond the national frontiers),

medium wave and FM stereo.

While France-Inter’s audience is in slow

decline (down 2.4 per cent over the period

1989–95), France Info (FM only), a nonstop

news service created in 1987, has been recently

showing a healthy annual increase in its audi-

ence (up 2.1 per cent 1994–5). The first such

station to be set up in Europe, it currently at-

tracts over 10 per cent of the total national

radio audience. Like its British counterpart

Radio 5, it also offers sports coverage.

France Culture (FM stereo, twenty-four

hours a day), created in 1963, lives up to its

name, offering intellectually challenging pro-

grammes to seriously-minded listeners. It

broadcasts six news bulletins each day, ten

hours of radio drama each week, along with

debates, discussions, documentaries and news

magazines. France Musique (FM stereo,

twenty-four hours a day), also created in 1963,

offers mainly classical music but also jazz, in-

terspersed with a good deal of discussion. The

station broadcasts a thousand concerts each

year and five news bulletins per day.

Radio Bleue (medium wave, 7a.m.–7 p.m.),

created in 1980, targets the over-50s. Its song

output is reputedly 100 per cent French. FIP

(FM and medium wave, 7 p.m.–4 p.m. or 6

p.m.) targets the motorist and offers music,

traffic and weather news and urgent personal

messages. Created in 1971, this station origi-

nally served only the Paris region; in 1992, it

became a national network. Formerly known

as Victor, France Culture Europe (FM, twenty-

four hours a day) broadcasts via satellite

(Eutelsat 11-F6) to the whole of Europe and is

a mixture of mainly France Culture (75 per

cent) and France Musique (20 per cent). Hec-

tor also broadcasts via satellite (1 a.m.–7 a.m.)

and carries France Musique’s programmes.

Finally, Sorbonne Radio France (medium

wave) broadcasts university lectures during

term time from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.

to 5 p.m. The best guide to radio programmes,

wavelengths and FM frequencies in France is

the weekly audiovisual magazine, Télérama.

Radio France also runs thirty-nine local

radio stations, created in the 1980s, to com-

pete with the local private stations, the radios

libres (mainly ex-pirate radio stations) author-

ized by the newly elected Socialist government

in their Loi sur la communication audiovisuelle

du 29 juillet 1982. Three pilot stations were

initially set up in 1980: Fréquence Nord (Lille),

Radio Mayenne (Laval) and Melun FM. The

remaining thirty-six were created in the years

1982–8, conveniently supporting the Social-

ists’ decentralization reforms introduced in

1981. There are four regional programme-pro-

duction workshops, at Nantes, Bordeaux, Nice

and Strasbourg. Administration is also distrib-

uted over a number of regional centres, namely

at Avignon, Besançon, Nantes, Bordeaux and

Paris. The thirty-nine stations broadcast a va-

riety of programmes, from soap operas to

documentaries. Many of these regional pro-

ductions are later broadcast on all the other

stations. Many programmes are of an interac-

tive nature. The stations function twenty-four

hours a day on FM, geographically covering

about 50 per cent of the country.

ALAN PEDLEY

See also: francophone radio: Europe; radio

(private/free)

Further reading

Boon, M., Ryst, A. and Vinay, C. (1990)

Lexique de l’audiovisuel, Paris: Dalloz.

radio (state-owned)

454

Guide de la radio (1995), Paris: Télérama (a

very informative, comprehensive guide).

INA/CSA (1994) Les Chiffres clés de la radio,

Paris: La Documentation Française.

rap

Appearing in France in 1983, rap has become

an important trend on the popular music

scene, but was only heard on the airwaves in

1993, when Je danse le Mia by IAM became a

huge success.The root of this art form is the

hip-hop culture in the United States and sug-

gests an oppressed black minority. In France,

rap could not really have existed without the

presence of black and beur immigrants. If it

was originally a protest song against the in-

justices of urban society, French rap has de-

veloped another dimension: fun and pun.

GÉRARD POULET

See also: beur music; beurs; MC Solaar; song/

chanson

Rappeneau, Jean-Paul

b. 1932, Auxerre

Director and scriptwriter

He began his career as a director, but spent

the 1960s mostly as a scriptwriter. Two of his

six 1960s films were scripted with Malle, in-

cluding Zazie dans le métro (1960). He turned

to directing again in the 1970s, making films

with Belmondo (Les Mariés de l’an II in

1970), Montand (Le Sauvage in 1975) and

Adjani (Tout feu, tout flamme in 1982). He

made one of the best sellers of the 1990s,

Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), with Depardieu,

followed by another heritage film in 1995, The

Horseman on the Roof (Le Hussard sur le

toit), with Binoche.

PHIL POWRIE

Further reading

Fallaize, E. (1992) ‘Filling in the Blank Can-

vas: Memory, Identity and Inheritance in

the Work of Marie Redonnet’, Forum for

Modern Language Studies 28 (highly lucid

account of key thematic issues in

Redonnet’s work).

regional economic development

The uneven economic development of France’s

regions and the growing concentration of

population and wealth in the Paris region af-

ter World War II brought policy changes,

grouped under the concept of aménagement

du territoire (town and country planning),

which aims at ‘re-equilibrating’ the various

regions. These policies had mixed results,

rap

455

although they helped in directing the flow of

investment and contributed to a greater aware-

ness of regional issues. Recently, regional plan-

ning has found a new lease of life, because of

the need to organize relations better between

central government, regional authorities and

Europe.

In 1947, J.F.Gravier’s book, Paris et le

désert français, had a considerable impact,

showing the widening gap between the Paris

region, increasingly populous and wealthy,

and those rural areas relying on family agri-

culture and small scale rural industries (such

as most of the Massif Central, the Provence

back-country, and large areas in the west of

France), losing their younger generations to

rural exodus and slowly dying out. Later, the

geographical distribution of economic activi-

ties and, especially, industry appeared to

change things dramatically. A number of re-

gions with older, heavy industries started to

decline. New areas of economic growth were

attracting investments, population and infra-

structure, with large regional capitals such as

Toulouse or Grenoble acting as magnets. The

crisis from the mid-1970s accentuated regional

imbalances. Some old industrial regions went

into terminal crisis, and some rural areas (for

instance, in the south of the Massif Central in

regions such as the Lozère) were close to be-

coming real deserts. Indeed, the Paris/Île-de-

France region has twice the gross product per

person per year of peripheral regions such as

Corsica and the Pas de Calais, with consider-

able differentials also as far as unemployment

rates, education levels, etc. are concerned.

In the face of this uneven socioeconomic

development, regional planning has been or-

ganized since the early 1960s around an au-

tonomous agency (DATAR) and regional com-

missions, sometimes the responsibility of a

minister.

Contrary to economic planning, regional

planning is still a tool of public policy. The

1982 Defferre law on decentralization gave

local authorities new political powers, with

wider budgetary and investment responsibili-

ties, requiring co-ordination with central gov-

ernment, especially through regional planning.

European economic integration has a grow-

ing impact on regional development: because

some peripheral areas (such as Brittany or the

Pyrenees) were left out of the richer, fast-grow-

ing middle Europe, this led regional planners

to establish strategies, and devote resources to

a better integration in Europe, complement-

ing the European Union’s own structural poli-

cies for poorer areas. Regional planning has

also been drafted since the mid-1980s into

implementing policies against social exclusion

evident in many deprived urban areas.

FRANÇOIS NECTOUX

See also: dirigisme; economy; regionalism

Further reading

Gravier, J.-F. (1971a) Économie et organisa-

tion régionales, Paris: Masson et Cie.

——(1971b) La Question régionale, Paris:

Flammarion.

——(1983) L’Espace vital, Paris: Flammarion.

Loughlin, J. and Mezey, S. (eds) (1995) The

End of the French Unitary State? Ten years

of Regionalisation in France 1982–1992,

Ilford: Frank Cass (an analysis of the con-

sequences of decentralization, including re-

gional development).

Scargill, I. (1995) ‘“L’Aménagement du

Territoire”: The Great Debate’, Modern

and Contemporary France NS3:1 (a brief

assessment of the impact of regional plan-

ning on regional development).

regional music

The postwar cliché on French cultural life in

general and musical enterprises in particular

was encapsulated by the formula, Paris et le

désert français (Paris and the French cultural

desert). If, in terms of creation, Paris remains

the centre of attraction, a systematic policy of

cultural regionalization since 1958 under vari-

ous governments (whether conservative or

Socialist) has eventually brought about, with

regional music

456

various degrees of success, some significant

changes in the musical life of the regions, evi-

dent in terms of creativity and diffusion. Bridg-

ing the cultural gap between Paris and the re-

gions was an essential element of the

aménagement du territoire (town and country

planning). Under Giscard d’Estaing (1974–81)

and Mitterrand (1981–95) French cultural

practices changed towards a greater consump-

tion of all kinds of music (classical, opera, jazz,

rock and pop and chansons) and the capitals

of the twenty-five regions became cultural cen-

tres of excellence. As far as music is concerned,

some had a greater impact than others in cer-

tain genres. But it is as if every regional capital

has been concerned with furnishing itself with

an original cultural symbol of identification:

Bourges and its ‘Printemps’ (spring festival) and

La Rochelle and its ‘Francofolies’ (French ex-

travaganza) are the two main events in the

domain of rock, pop and variétés in France.

Opera in the provinces was revived in the

1970s by Rolf Liebermann. Twelve towns host

this symbol of highbrow culture, and Bor-

deaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Nancy

outshine some Parisian productions with their

creations. Rock has its capitals sometimes un-

known to a wider public: Rennes,

Valenciennes, Nancy. Singers like Nougaro

and Cabrel have been able to record their

soundtracks and vidéoclips in Toulouse (at the

Condorcet Studio and, after 1984, the

Polygone). As far as classical music is con-

cerned, the models have been the regional or-

chestras of Lille (with Jean-Claude Casadesus)

and Toulouse (with Michel Plasson). From the

1970s, jazz saw the emergence of numerous

regional associations defined as centres of

creation and diffusion and subsidized as such;

some of these musical co-operatives have been

active since then, such as the ARFI (Lyon) and

the GRIM (Marseille), while some are seen

more as teaching centres (the JAM in

Montpellier and Caen Jazz Action). Each re-

gion develops its own voluntarist policy for

the development of all forms of music, at-

tempting to avoid the inherent danger of insu-

larity. At the end of the 1990s, Paris is no

longer surrounded by a cultural desert and

some might argue that it is now only the first

of the provinces.

Regional music could also be understood

as the expression of the musical cultural con-

sciousness of the regions, involving the re-crea-

tion from a traditional heritage, of music for a

modern audience. We must refer to ‘real’ re-

gions rather than their administrative divisions

(e.g. the Occitan, Catalan and Basque territo-

ries, Brittany, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Limousin,

Berry, Provence and Picardy.) Then we get into

folk-music territory.

GÉRARD POULET

See also: folk music; language and the French

regions; music festivals; music industry; music

venues; regionalism; song/chanson

regional press in France

Only a quarter of the 10 million daily news-

papers produced in France are Paris-based;

only 10 of the nation’s 75 daily titles are pro-

duced in the capital. The relative strength of

the provincial press seems to run counter to

the traditionally centralized nature of French

institutions. The balance between national and

regional dailies has been shifting slowly but

constantly, during the twentieth century, away

from a Parisian to a provincial dominance.

Just before World War II, parity had been

reached, each sector providing about 5.5 mil-

lion copies per day. By the 1990s, while the

number of copies of regional dailies had risen

to over 7 million, the total of Paris dailies had

dropped to well under 3 million.

In a situation of generally declining news-

paper readership, this provincial success story

appears all the more remarkable. Provincial

media consumers in France perhaps need the

more locally focused regional papers to coun-

teract the impact of the largely national and

international bias of television. Another fac-

tor worth mentioning is that the more densely

populated regions of France are, the less their

inhabitants read. This tendency is demon-

strated by the fact that, whereas 52.8 per cent

regional press in France

457

of the inhabitants of the provinces read a daily

paper, the figure for the Paris region is only

35.4 per cent.

Apart from Le Parisien, which produces a

‘national’ edition, Aujourd’hui, the capital’s

papers are all-embracing, single-edition publi-

cations. By contrast, many provincial dailies

publish several differentiated local editions.

Quest-France, for example, publishes forty

editions. This flexibility gives regional papers

a distinct advantage over Paris papers, cater-

ing for the never-satiated appetite of the

French for faits-divers and the rubrique des

chiens écrasés (human interest stories).

Three other factors account for the relatively

healthy state of the regional press in France.

First, production processes, both in terms of

composition and printing, have tended to be

more technologically developed in the prov-

inces. Regional papers tend, for example, to

be far more colourful than Paris papers. Sec-

ond, provincial papers have suffered less than

their Parisian counterparts from the decline in

advertising revenue caused by the ever-increas-

ing share that television has been claiming over

the past few years. The more specifically tar-

geted adverts in local papers continue to pro-

vide a regular income. Finally, the average price

of a provincial daily is considerably lower than

the typical Paris daily: Quest-France, for ex-

ample, only costs about two thirds of the price

of Le Monde and Le Figaro.

Whereas only 8 Paris-based dailies sell

more than 100,000 copies, 19 regional dailies

have circulations in that range. By far the lead-

ing title is Quest-France, based in Rennes and

like so many French dailies founded in Au-

gust 1944, which not only outsells all other

provincial dailies, but all Parisian ones too,

with over 750,000 copies. This paper’s pen-

etration extends well beyond the borders of

the old province of Brittany and benefits from

the fact that it serves a region boasting the

highest level of newspaper readership in

France (62.4 per cent). While far behind

Quest-France, seven other titles nevertheless

have circulation figures of over 250,000: La

Voix du Nord (based in Lille, founded in

1941); Sud-Ouest (Bordeaux, 1944), which

took over La Petite Gironde (founded in the

nineteenth century but, like all other papers

(whether in Paris or in the provinces) which

continued to appear under Germany occupa-

tion, forced to close after the Liberation); Le

Progrès (Lyon, 1859), Le Dauphiné Libéré

(Grenoble, 1944) and La Montagne

(Clermont-Ferrand, 1919).

Three other titles top the 200,000 mark:

L’Est Républican (Nancy, 1889); La Dépêche

du Midi (Toulouse, 1870) and Les Dernières

Nouvelles d’Alsace (Strasbourg, 1877), which

enjoys the unique distinction of being read by

an absolute majority of the inhabitants of the

region it serves. The following eight titles have

circulations of between 100,000 and 200,000:

Le Républicain Lorrain (Metz, 1919); Midi

libre (Montpellier, 1944), Le Télégramme

(Morlaix, 1944); Le Provençal (Marseille,

1944); L’Alsace (Mulhouse); Paris-Normandie

(Rouen, 1944); L’Union (Reims) and Le

Counter de l’ouest (Angers).

This overall diversity of titles does not

mean, however, that there is any degree of

choice for the individual reader in any given

locality. Very few towns in fact offer a choice

of regional daily titles. Thanks to mergers,

takeovers or closures due to ever-increasing

problems caused by a variety of factors (di-

minishing advertising revenues, increasing

production costs, increased prices deterring

would-be purchasers leading to falling sales,

strikes, distribution problems and competition

from television as a provider of information

and entertainment), the number of provincial

titles has fallen from 175 to 65 in fifty years.

Readership figures can obviously only be

estimates, but in most cases they can be calcu-

lated as being three (or occasionally four)

times the circulation figures. In addition to the

nonpurchasing readers in families and

workplaces, it must be noted that most cafés

in France make free copies of local papers

available for their clients.

As for the identity of readers, the following

differences are worth noting: provincial pa-

pers attract a higher female readership (49 per

cent) than Parisian papers (41 percent); pro-

vincial papers also attract a higher proportion

regional press in France