Brittany (Breizh)

Brittany and the French revolution The revolutionary period was particularly marked in Brittany by royalist and counter-revolutionary movements. The peasant rising of the so-called chouannerie against the revolution was suppressed with great barbarity, leaving a deep sense of hostility towards the central government. Doue ha mem Bro!

Les Chouans

19 th century Brittany as an internal colony In the nineteenth century, France’s overseas colonies grew- especially in Africa (eg Algeria), and beyond in the Pacific. Centralisation and the desire to impose uniformity in culture and language meant that many of the regional languages of France were neglected and despised by the authorities.

Brittany as an internal colony Brittany in particular with its language and specific way of life increasingly was treated as if it were an ‘internal’ colony. The Bretons were seen as the ‘other’, foreign but at the same time ‘French’. We see this ‘colonial gaze’ in the work of such artists of the 19 th century, like Paul Gauguin, who came to Brittany to paint what seemed like an exotic culture.

Previous photograph ‘Brittany diorama’ from the French room in the Paris Ethnographic Museum, c 1895.

Previous photograph Young women in traditional costume in Pont-Aven. Musee des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Mediterranee, Marseille.

Paul Gauguin Gauguin related to the Bretons in Pont-Aven (western Brittany) in a similar way to the natives of Tahiti where he went after the 1880s. We can see in his work an eye for the exotic, otherness of colonised peoples.

Cultural awakenings The beginnings of a sense of the rediscovery of Breton roots and identity can be felt at the beginning of the 19 th century. The first modern dictionary of Breton by Jean-Francois Le Gonidec An important year in the cultural history of Brittany was 1838 when La Villemarqué published the landmark anthology of Breton songs called the Barzaz Breiz. Francois-Marie Luzel-started publishing genuine folktales in Breton and many songs from rural Brittany..

Barzaz Breizh- the Heroic Poems of Brittany 1867-T. Hersart de La Villemarqué published a large anthology of ‘popular’ songs collected (he said) from the ordinary working people of Lower Brittany. The songs or ballads collected tell the story of the Bretons, across the centuries. (Anne Auffret and Yann-Fanch Kemener).

Cultural awakenings 19 th century A reaction against the traditional exploitation or neglect of Brittany by the central government in Paris before and after the revolution manifested itself in varying ways. Eventually it took shape with the formation of the Union Régionaliste Bretonne in 1898, which gave rise afterwards to a variety of splinter groups.

Breton culture at the end of the 19 th century At the same time, the Bretons of Lower Brittany- les Bretons bretonnants- or Breton-speaking Bretons remained strongly Catholic, and adherred to their ethnic customs. The Buez ar Sent (Life of the Saints) was usually the only Breton book found in Breton homes.

Breton Nationalism: cultural and political Brittany in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Meet Becassine!

Bécassine! C’est ma cousine! Breton character in comic strip, who first appears in She is a housemaid who wears traditional Breton costume. She is portrayed without a mouth (usually). She is a stereotype Breton, and reflects the contempt shown by mainstream France to the Bretons. Between 1915 and 1950, 27 volumes of Becassine stories appeared.

Bécassine the Breton revolutionary

Becassine the movie 2001