France – daily existence and social customs

The literature from the twentieth century was notable because of its openness to nonnative authors: the Irish author Samuel Beckett, for example, the Czech expatriate Milan Kundera, the Russian emigrant Andreï Makine, and Chinese exile Gao Xingjian have created major works in French. Georges Simenon and Marguerite Yourcenar, both born in Belgium in 1903, were considered French authors, though they frequently resided outdoors France. The postcolonial literature from the late 20th and early 21st centuries offered insights in to the tensions of mix-cultural identity by Francophone authors from North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and also the Caribbean.

The whole shebang of French playwrights have enjoyed worldwide popularity of centuries, in the 17th-century comic theatre of Molière towards the 19th-century cabaret productions referred to as Grand Guignol. In theatre within the 20th and 21st centuries three important currents could be discovered. Traditional playwriting was transported on usually by Jean Anouilh, Claudel, Jean Giraudoux, Henry de Montherlant, and Camus, but experimentation with form and content also developed. Before The Second World War, Jean Cocteau particularly made his mark (as did to some lesser degree Claudel), but innovation included Fernando Arrabal, Arthur Adamov, Beckett, Jean Genet, and also the Romanian exile Eugène Ionesco. Because the 1950s producers also have made an essential contribution to theatre Roger Planchon, Jean-Louis Barrault, Peter Brook, Marcel Maréchal, and Ariane Mnouchkine particularly have shared both in creating new works and revitalizing traditional ones.

Philosophy and critique usually have performed a main part in French intellectual and cultural existence. The Surrealist movement, brought by André Breton, amongst others, flourished within the 1920s and ’30s. Existentialism both in Christian and atheist forms would be a effective pressure within the mid-twentieth century and it was championed by Sartre, Étienne Gilson, Gabriel Marcel, and Camus (though he rejected the label). More broadly, Roman Catholicism and Marxism in orthodox or revised forms have influenced a lot of creative authors, such as the Roman Catholic Georges Bernanos and Sartre, who had been a Marxist of the sort. Because the 1950s, new critique, which started with structuralism—itself largely inspired through the anthropological work of Claude Lévi-Strauss in Mythologiques, 4 vol. (1964–71), and Tristes Tropiques (1955)—has challenged the monopoly from the historic method of pieces of art and particularly literature. Not restricted to literary critique, structuralism was an essential element of philosophy among proponents for example Louis Althusser. Typically the most popular expression of the approach was possibly the job of Roland Barthes, including Mythologies (1957), but his work fragmented into various branches—linguistic, genetic, psychobiographical, sociocultural—each using its exponents and disciples more and more embroiled in academic, and frequently abstruse, debate. Following around the heels of structuralism, poststructuralism was connected with your figures as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, Giles Deleuze, Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, and Jean-François Lyotard. Other philosophers of latest note include André Glucksmann, Bernard Henri-Lévy, and Michel Serres. (For more discussion, see French literature.)

Resourse: https://britannica.com/place/France/

French Lifestyle and Traditions

Video COMMENTS:

Duff Clem: "Saint-Nicolas" is only celebrated in Alsace-Lorraine and in Belgium, not in every region of France.

SuperFrenchgirl: La fête des rois has actually a christian background. The "fève" used to represent the baby Jesus, and the goal was to search for the baby like the 3 wise kings did in the New Testament. The one who finds him gets to become a "king" or a "queen". \n\nIt then got all commercial and the traditionnal baby Jesus has soon been replaced by famous movie characters. But for christian families this celebration still has this meaning.

CastelDawn: Halloween doesn't really grow in popularity in France true enough. I think that the whole thing to go door to door isn't really flying with people there. Plus the first of November is the day of the dead, a time of mourning so..

Koozomec: La fête des rois (the kings celebration) or épiphanie takes place on the first sunday of the year.

osez111: Saint Patrick is for Irish, why the F/H celebrate this in france?

Koozomec: +osez111 For the party and the beer 🙂 but it happens only in the brit pubs in the big cities. I guess it's marginal like halloween.