The French Presidential Election of 2017

THE FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2017: A SEISMIC SHIFT?
FRENCH-UA-865
NYU, Spring 2017
Tue/Th. 4:55-6:10PM
IFS, 15 Washington Mews
Stéphane Gerson
19 University Place, #625
[email protected]
These are epochal times in France, a country shaken by terrorist attacks, enduring unemployment, acrid
debates about veils and burkinis, and deep distrust of the political system. This spring, the country faces a
pivotal presidential election. The extreme-right candidate Marine Le Pen is almost assured to be one of
the two final candidates; she may win it all. This would be a momentous shift for France and Europe.
How did France end up in this situation? What political, economic, and social forces have transformed
this dominant global power (in 1900) into a nation in search of its place in the world, its national identity,
and a political system in which all citizens feel included? For many French men and women — and
scholars as well — the country is mired in a series of crises:
 An economic crisis that encompasses the very nature of work and the breadth of the
welfare system;
 A social crisis around education, systemic inequality, and the ‘integration’ of
immigrants and their children;
 A political crisis around the role of the state and the contours of French republicanism;
 A geopolitical crisis around France’s relationship with the broader world (the E.U., the
U.S., and globalization more generally);
 A religious crisis centered on freedom of expression, pluralism, and laïcité —with
Islam at its center;
 A cultural crisis around the import of French culture around the world
In this course, we will seek to understand this critical moment by following the campaign live, as it folds,
while situating it in French history. We will draw from sociological and political analyses, movies and
literature, and journalistic investigations to grasp the trajectory of a country and a Republic that is running
into severe crosswinds. The course will end on May 7 — with a live viewing of the election results.
This course will be taught in English.
Tuesday Jan. 24
Introduction: Whither France?
Jean-Marc Ayrault, “Pour un nouveau modèle français,” Le Monde, janvier
2013.
Th. Jan. 26
The French Political System
Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright, The Government and Politics of
France (2001), selections.
Tue. Jan. 31
The French Republican Model
2
The Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) and other documents on the
French Revolution.
Jacques-Louis David, “Serment du Jeu de paume, le 20 juin 1789” (179091), www.insecula.com/œuvre.photo_ME000065269.html.
I. SHOCKS TO THE SYSTEM (1900-1970s)
Th. Feb. 2
The Heights of 1900, the Shock of World War I
V. du Claux, ‘Chronique de l’Exposition,’ La Nouvelle Revue (1889).
Paul Valéry, “Première lettre: la crise de l’esprit” (1919), extraits.
Background: Charles Sowernine, France Since 1870, ch. 8.
Tue. Feb. 7
Greater France in the Colonies
Exposition coloniale internationale de Paris en 1931 (1930), extraits.
Extraits de chansons coloniales (années 1930).
Revendications de l’Etoile nord-africaine (1936).
Alice Conklin, “The Civilizing Mission,” in Christophe Prochasson et al.,
eds., The French Republic.
Th Feb. 9
Political Rifts (1930s)
Jean Renoir, “Le Crime de Monsieur Lange” (1935, 90 mins.) [Fischer
VCA 3034].
Julian Jackson, The Popular Front in France: Defending Democracy 19341938, chs. 2 and 4.
Background: Sowernine, chs. 10-11 and pp. 172-73.
Tue Feb. 14
The Trauma of World War II
Documents on the Vichy regime, the Occupation, and the Deportation of
Jews.
Julian Jackson, France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 (2001), selection.
Background: Sowernine, pp. 174-32.
Th. Feb. 16
Charles de Gaulle: Man and Myth
De Gaulle, Speeches (1940-65).
De Gaulle, Mémoires de guerre (1954), selection.
Background: Sowernine, 235-40, 304-6, and 316-27.
Tue. Feb. 21
The Politics of the Fifth Republic: Sovereignty, Welfare, Gender
Goscinny and Uderzo, Le tour de Gaule d’Astérix (1986 [1965]), extraits.
Richard Kuisel, Seducing the French: The Dilemma of Americanization,
selection.
Background: Sowernine, 260-64, 280-82, 367-75, 386-87, and 424-26.
Th. Feb. 23
Consumer Society and ‘Planification’
3
Georges Perec, Things: A Story of the Sixties (1965), selection.
Nicole Rudolph, At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and
the Right to Comfort (2015), tbd.
Background: Sowernine, 274-79 and 339-42
Tue. Feb. 28
Constructing Europe
Documents on France and Europe.
Background: Sowernine, 266-67 and 401-2.
Th. March 2
Pathways of Immigration
Documents on immigration, shantytowns, and housing projects.
Abdelmalek Sayad, entretien avec l’ouvrier immigré ‘Abbas’ (1990), in
Pierre Bourdieu, dir., The Weight of the World (1993).
Moustapha Dip and Laurence Michalak, “‘Refuge’” and ‘Prison’: Islam,
Ethnicity, and the Adaptation of Space in Workers’ Housing in France,”
in Barbara Daley Metcalf, ed., Making Muslim Space in North America
and Europe, 75-91.
Tue. March 7
The End of the Colonial Empire
Gilles Pontecorvo,“The Battle of Algiers ” (1966, 125 mins.) [VCA 4659].
Todd Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the
Remaking of France (2006), tbd.
Background: Sowernine, 255-59, 269-73, 284-95, and 309-16.
Tue. March 9
The Limits of the Welfare State
Pierre Bourdieu, “La fin d’un monde,” in his La misère du monde (1993).
Paul Cohen, “Lessons from the Nationalization Nation: State-Owned
Enterprises in France,” Dissent (hiver 2010): 15-20.
José Bové and François Dufour, The World is Not for Sale: Farmers
Against Junk Food (2001), extraits.
Jean-Louis Andreani, “L’affaiblissement de l’état-protecteur,” Le Monde,
2001.
Background: Sowernine, 430-31.
March 14-16
Spring Break
II. A COUNTRY UNDER STRAIN (1970s-present)
Tue. March 21
The Transformation of Work [incl women and work…]
Florence Aubenas, The Night Cleaner, introduction and chs. 2-7, 13, 15, 17,
20 and epilogue.
4
Th. April 23
La banlieue: Spatial and Social Exclusion
Matthieu Kassovitz, “La Haine,” (1996, 95 mins.) [VCA 6500].
Arnaud Lefranc,“Unequal Opportunities and Ethnic Origin: The Labor
Market Outcomes of Second-Generation Immigrants in France,”
American Behavioral Scientist 53, no. 12 (August 2010).
Tue. April 28
The National Front —History and Ideology
Jean-Marie Le Pen, Pour la France: programme du Front National (1985),
extraits [25-34 and 109-24].
Marc Weitzman, Interview with Marine Le Pen, Tablet Magazine (2014),
bit.ly/3937Agm
Marine Le Pen, op ed on Brexit, New York Times, June 2016,
http://nyti.ms/2915SVi
Peter Davies, The National Front in France : Ideology, Discourse and
Power (2014), tbd.
Background: Sowernine, 390-92, 400-1 and 428-30.
Th. April 30
How to Explain the FN’s Success? How to Respond?
J. G. Shields, “Political Representation in France: A Crisis of Democracy?,”
Parliamentary Affairs 59 (2006). [cut pp 162-66]
Francoise Gaspard, A Small City in France, tbd.
Virginie Marin and Pierre Lénel, “Les votes du FN expriment un trouble de
civilisation, ” Le Monde, 2012.
Françoise Fressoz and Thomas Wieder: “La ‘France d’à côté’ ne se sent
plus représentée, ” Le Monde, 2011.
Tue. April 4
The Secular Republic and Islam
Jean Bauberot and Patrick Weil, “The Stasi Commission and the Headscarf
Law,” French Politics, Culture, & Society, 22:3 (Fall 2004)
Joan Wallach Scott, “Veiled Politics,” The Chronicle of Higher
faubeEducation Review (2007).
Scott, Joan. 2005. “Symptomatic Politics: The Banning of Islamic Head
Scarves in French Public Schools.” French Politics, Culture and Society.
23(3): 106-127.
John R. Bowen, “The Republic and the Veil,” in The French Republic
(2011), 272–277.
Documents on the Burkini Affair (2016)
Th.-Friday April 6-7
Conference on the French National Front (Maison française):
please attend two of the four panels and write a 500-word critical
summary of both of them. Email me this document by
Monday April 10 at midnight.
Tue. April 11
Discussion of the Front National Conference
5
Th.April 13
Violence and Radicalization
Michel Wieviorka, “Violence in France” (2005),
http://riotsfrance.ssrc.org/Wieviorka/
Farid Khosrokhavar, Radicalization (2017), tbd.
Tue. April 18
A Changing Religious Landscape [+extreme Catholicism, mariage gay]
Xavier Beauvois, “Of Gods and Men ” (2010) [DVD 21232 BLU].
Wade Clark Roof and al., The Post-War Generation and Establishment
Religion (1995), conclusion.
Th. April 20
No Class
III. ELECTION TIME
Tue. April 25
First Round of the Election (April 23): Discussion with
with Laure Béréni, political scientist at the CNRS
Tue. May 2
Perspective on the Election I: conversation with the
New York correspondant of the Nouvel Observateur.
Th. May 4
A Nation in Decline?
Donald Morrison, The Death of French Culture (2010), see ref’s last CF +
23-29 (haut de la page), 44-46, 54-55, bas 61-63, 66-67, 69-71, 74-76,
95-96, 100-106, and 109-117.
Olivier Guez, “Voting for Yesterday in France,” New York Times, 2012
Daniel Sabbagh, « Affirmative Action at Sciences Po », French Politics,
Culture, and Society, vol. 20, n°3, 2002, 52-64.
Jonathan Buchsbaum , “’The Exception Culturelle Is Dead.’ Long Live
Diversity: French Cinema and the New Resistance,” Framework: The
Journal of Cinema and Media, 47, 1, Spring 2006.
Sunday May 7
Second Round of the Election: Viewing party/luncheon/discussion
at Stéphane’s home, 110 Bleecker St (betw. Mercer and
La Guardia), apt. 8A.