French rugby football : a cultural history / Philip Dine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dine, Philip.

Series:

Berg French studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rugby Union football--France--History.

Rugby Union football.

Rugby Union football--Social aspects--France.

Social aspects.

History.

France.

Physical Description:

viii, 229 pages : map ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Berg, 2001.

Summary:

As France's oldest team sport, rugby football has throughout its 125-year history reflected major changes in French society. This book analyzes for the first time the complex variety of motives that have led the French to adopt and remake this rather unlikely British sport in their own image. A major site for the construction of masculine, class-based regional and national identities, France's tradition of 'Champagne rugby' continues to be as subject to dramatic upheavals as the society that produced it. The game's precocious professionalism and endemic violence have not infrequently caused the French to be cast as international pariahs. Such isolation, exacerbated by internal politics, has led the French not only to encourage the extension of the sport beyond its British imperial base (into Italy and Romania, for instance), but also to engage in some uncomfortable tactical alliances, most obviously with apartheid South Africa.

Taking his analysis both on and off the field, the author tackles these issues and much more: the relationship of sport and the state (including particularly the Vichy period and the presidency of de Gaulle); professionalization; the persistence of colonial and postcolonial structures (including the role of ethnic minorities); and gender issues -- especially masculine identities. At the same time he links the evolution of the sport to the broader context of French socio-economic, political and cultural history. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the cultural analysis of sport or French popular culture.

Contents:

Introduction: 'Only fabulous French can do this' 1

Part I The Rise of le rugby-panache, 1880-1914

1 Pioneers and Patriots in Paris 19

2 The Expansion into the Provinces 41

Part II Rugby Goes to War, 1914-1945

3 Identity and Brutality in the South-West 61

4 French Rugby in the Wilderness 79

5 Marechal nous voila!

The Wartime Betrayal of le rugby a treize 95

Part III Uncorking le rugby-champagne, 1945-1968

6 The Second Miracle of Lourdes 115

7 'Mission Accomplished!'

1968 and All That 129

Part IV Towards a Global Game, 1968-2000

8 The Struggle for the Soul of le rugby francais 151

9 Out of Africa: Professionalism's Winds of Change 171

Conclusion: A la recherche du rugby perdu 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-209) and index.

ISBN:

1859733220

1859733271

OCLC:

45735785