Memoirs of French peasant life: Progress and nostalgia in postwar France

摘要

This article explores the phenomenon in France of the publication and widespread popularity from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s of memoirs and récits de vie by peasants. Appearances on television made the authors celebrities. What accounts for this burst of interest in first-person accounts of peasant life? By focusing on four memoirs that became bestsellers and then classics, this article illuminates the context in which such memoirs came to be written and reflects on the attraction of these stories for the French public. The article explores the place of nostalgia and attitudes towards progress in the authors’ and readers’ relationship to the past.