I am so tired of USAmericans just barging in into everything and acting like they know best. Because it is almost always USAmericans who act like this.
You can make an argument that Caesar created a more unified Gaul, because they were uniting against him, but not a united Frence, WTF?
In the context of French national identity, it is in fact significant that Astérix and co are from Brittany. French identity has been constructed at least in part at the expanse of what are currently regional identities, such as the Breton identity (I may have gone on a slightly incoherent rant on that subject in this entry).
OKAY YES I WILL EXPLAIN THE BRETON THING!
In French, the words for "Brittany" and "Britain" are the same: "Bretagne". (In breton, "Breizh" (sort of), leading to the BZH abbreviation, idk if you've seen it.) Currently, Great Britain is la Grande-Bretagne and Brittany is simply la Bretagne. At the time Astérix is set in however, Great-Britain is simply la Bretagne and Brittany is l'Armorique (from the breton "armor", meaning "the coast"). You can also find those referred to as "la Bretagne insulaire" (insulary Britain) and "la Bretagne armoricaine" (the coastal Brittany; see for example the beginning of Manau's La Tribu de Dana). Inhabitants of Bretagne (whichever) are called Breton(ne)(s), except for inhabitants of Grande-Bretagne, who are Brittanique(s). Inhabitans of Armorique are Armoricain(e)(s).
Which means that in Astérix chez les Bretons you have a group of Armoricains visiting the Bretons due to the time period while they would be Bretons visiting Brittaniques today.
Confused yet? It gets worse, if I throw in la/les Cournouaille(s).
Your "OMG, dying" reaction is pretty much what Astérix is like ALL THE TIME while French-reading, lamo. I think I know where I can find a couple of Astérix albums in English, I should read them just to compare. Thanks for the link to the article! It's really great and surprisingly accurate. (And I agree that Uderzo-solo books are not very good, on the whole. they range from 'pretty okay actually' to 'what album 33? isn't weird that the series jumped from 32 to 34. how strange'.)
I'm sorry, I can't help. I actually like La Marseillaise for a variety of reasons and the French national motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" too, that include the fact if you look at when they've been used in French history as symbols of French identity, they weren't used when France was not France/a republic.
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Date: 2015-03-22 12:39 am (UTC)You can make an argument that Caesar created a more unified Gaul, because they were uniting against him, but not a united Frence, WTF?
In the context of French national identity, it is in fact significant that Astérix and co are from Brittany. French identity has been constructed at least in part at the expanse of what are currently regional identities, such as the Breton identity (I may have gone on a slightly incoherent rant on that subject in this entry).
OKAY YES I WILL EXPLAIN THE BRETON THING!
In French, the words for "Brittany" and "Britain" are the same: "Bretagne". (In breton, "Breizh" (sort of), leading to the BZH abbreviation, idk if you've seen it.) Currently, Great Britain is la Grande-Bretagne and Brittany is simply la Bretagne. At the time Astérix is set in however, Great-Britain is simply la Bretagne and Brittany is l'Armorique (from the breton "armor", meaning "the coast"). You can also find those referred to as "la Bretagne insulaire" (insulary Britain) and "la Bretagne armoricaine" (the coastal Brittany; see for example the beginning of Manau's La Tribu de Dana). Inhabitants of Bretagne (whichever) are called Breton(ne)(s), except for inhabitants of Grande-Bretagne, who are Brittanique(s). Inhabitans of Armorique are Armoricain(e)(s).
Which means that in Astérix chez les Bretons you have a group of Armoricains visiting the Bretons due to the time period while they would be Bretons visiting Brittaniques today.
Confused yet? It gets worse, if I throw in la/les Cournouaille(s).
Your "OMG, dying" reaction is pretty much what Astérix is like ALL THE TIME while French-reading, lamo. I think I know where I can find a couple of Astérix albums in English, I should read them just to compare. Thanks for the link to the article! It's really great and surprisingly accurate. (And I agree that Uderzo-solo books are not very good, on the whole. they range from 'pretty okay actually' to 'what album 33? isn't weird that the series jumped from 32 to 34. how strange'.)
I'm sorry, I can't help. I actually like La Marseillaise for a variety of reasons and the French national motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" too, that include the fact if you look at when they've been used in French history as symbols of French identity, they weren't used when France was not France/a republic.