Myths of authenticity and cultural performance : Breton identity in the poetry anthology 1839-2000

Abstract

This article examines the various constructions of Breton identity in twelve anthologies of poetry revealing three broad conceptual phases: celebration of an essential ethno-cultural otherness which nonetheless belongs within the French Republic (1830–1918), calls for independence which harness pan-Celtic or postcolonial discourses (1919–71), and a playful, performative notion of identity based on cultural affinity, inclusive of incomers (1976–2000). I focus on strategies of editorial framing which, in each phase, insist on the apartness, and the authenticity, of Breton expression. These anthological, quasi-anthropological projects both anticipate and encourage the reader’s touristic gaze, betraying anxieties about Brittany’s relationship to the nation within which it must negotiate a place. These negotiations are played out in texts which, in their use of the French language and French poetic forms, operate a constant dialogue with the national tradition, a mode of self-questioning to which the poem is particularly well suited.