In an excellent article for TIME Europe, Don Morrison discusses the decline of France's cultural profile around the world, the how's and why's, and his hopes for a return from décadence to grandeur. "Nobody takes culture more seriously than the French," Morrison writes. "There is one problem. All of these mighty oaks being felled in France's cultural forest make barely a sound in the wider world. Once admired for the dominating excellence of its writers, artists and musicians, France today is a wilting power in the global cultural marketplace."
"France's diminished cultural profile would be just another interesting national crotchet if France weren't France. This is a country where promoting cultural influence has been national policy for centuries, where controversial philosophers and showy new museums are symbols of pride and patriotism." So when a recent poll of of 1,310 Americans for French magazine Le Figaro reveals that "Only 20% considered culture to be a domain in which France excels, far behind cuisine," you know you have a problem.
How come French culture is losing ground, when government spending on cultural and recreational activities is 1.5% of GDP, as opposed to 0.3% in the U.S.? Therein lies one of the main issues: France's bureaucratic, protectionist and elitist control of culture, which distrusts novelty, commercial success and "low culture," while they are celebrated in a freer, entrepreneurial way in the U.S.
Morrison evokes other causes, such as the geographical limits of the French language, or the fact that cultural criticism and publicity is based mostly in the U.S. and in the U.K. But he also offers hope. "What those foreigners are missing is that French culture is surprisingly lively," he says, ie. French culture is more than TIME's cover caricature. "The country's angry, ambitious minorities are committing culture all over the place [...] France has always been a country where people could come from any country and immediately start painting or writing in French. The richness of French culture is based on that quality."
"And what keeps a nation great if not the infusion of new energy from the margins?" Morrison adds. "Expand the definition of culture a bit, and you'll find three fields in which France excels by absorbing outside influences," namely: fashion, cuisine and winemaking. "Jean-Paul Sartre, the giant of postwar French letters, wrote in 1946 to thank the U.S. for Hemingway, Faulkner and other writers who were then influencing French fiction -- but whom Americans were starting to take for granted. 'We shall give back to you these techniques which you have lent us. We shall return them digested, intellectualized, less effective, and less brutal -- consciously adapted to French taste.'"
In the end, it all depends on France's ability to shake up its counter-productive system, and on critics around the world dusting off their perceptions of what culture is about. As Morrison concludes, "When the more conventional minds of the French cultural establishment -- along with their self-occupied counterparts abroad -- stop fretting about decline and start applauding the ferment on the fringes, France will reclaim its reputation as a cultural power, a land where every new season brings a harvest of genius."
[update 12/08/07: Bernard-Henri Lévy reacts to TIME's article in The Guardian]
[update 12/19/07: Lettre à nos amis américains in Le Monde]
[update 12/20/07: Le Monde editorial about TIME's article]
[update 12/29/07: La culture française victime d'un canular in Le Monde]
[update 01/11/08: Living proof of a vibrant culture CulturesFrance strikes back in TIME]
photo of TIME cover parisdailyphoto.com
