Great Britain in the French Imaginary in the Gaullist Era
Type de matériel :
45
This article analyses the French perception of Britain during the 1960s, a decade that was marked by de Gaulle’s two vetoes against the entry of Britain into the Common Market, and by numerous economic, social and cultural changes on both sides of the Channel. It shall be seen that both in 1963 and 1967, General de Gaulle’s stance didn’t go against the representations and the opinions of the French. Britain was generally considered a conservative, declining country turned towards the US. Though this image was partly blurred by the British pop culture, which deeply influenced the imagination of the baby-boomers, the other generations rather saw this cultural change as the symptom of an identity crisis. This pessimistic and condescending view explains the national consensus on the two vetoes, but also reveals the new self-confidence of a country whose economic expansion was reinforced by its politics of grandeur.
Réseaux sociaux