“Мilestones of Identity” in the Intercultural and Language Aspects (from Provence to Occitania)

Abstract

The article examines the questions of identity as a phenomenon, which has generalizing characteristics and which is connected with reconstruction based on individual fragments of more general cultural values. The identity phenomenon is connected with the phenomenon of tradition, which can be explained as a point of view of contemporaries on the cultural significance of the past (Pouillon J.). In order to study the dynamics of Provencal / Occitan identity the innovations of each period have been singled out – “milestones of identity”. This term implies identical references accumulating or replacing each other in the process of historical development. The examined material shows that in the history of South French identity there was a period of inertial fading and several periods of identical uplifts of various strengths. Over the centuries, the past was rethought, innovations occurred, and identity was reformatted. That is the reason why we consider each stage new, with its own differential characteristics - “milestones” of identity. Among them there are: the culture of troubadours as a reference base (1); stigmatization of the Albiguian and religious wars (2); the cultural matrix of the “eternal” Provence, sacralization and “musification” of the past, the role of the creative person (felibrism) (3); demythologization of culture; rational justification of identity (Occitanism), the departure of the Occitan language from real communication and the development of a secondary, symbolic function (4); virtualization, “depersonification” of identity; distancing from the past (our time) (5). These and other “milestones” mark the path that the South French identity has traveled. They also denote the general vector of its development – confirmation of the rights in conditions of interaction with the dominant North French / French culture.

References

1. Baranova V.V. 2010. Yazyk i etnicheskaya identichnost’: urumy i rumei priazov’ya [Language and ethnic identity: Urumahs and Rumees of Azov]. Moscow, ID Gosuniversiteta – vysshei shkoly ekonomiki. (In Russ.)

2. Bart F. 2006. Etnicheskie gruppy i sotsial’nye granitsy: Sotsial’naya organizatsiya kul’turnykh razlichii [Ethnic groups and social boundaries: The social organization of cultural differences]. Moscow, Novoe izd-vo. (In Russ.)

3. Belorussova S.Yu., Golovnev A.V. (ed.) 2019. Virtual’naya identichnost’ – novatsiya na fone traditsii? (Vedenie v temu) [Is virtual identity an innovation against the backdrop of tradition? (Conducting in a subject)]. Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniya [Siberian historical researches], no. 2. Virtual’naya etnichnost’ i kiberetnografiya [Virtual Ethnicity and Cyber Ethnography], pp. 36–40. (In Russ.)

4. Gak V.G. 1996. Otzyv ofitsial’nogo opponenta o doktorskoi dissertatsii T.Yu. Zagryazkinoi “Protsessy prostranstvennoi differentsiatsii i integratsii frantsuzskogo yazyka” [Review of the official opponent about the doctoral dissertation T.Yu. Zagryazkina “The processes of spatial differentiation and integration of the French language”]. Moscow (as a manuscript). (In Russ.)

5. Zagryazkina T.Yu. 2020. Identity Сonstruct in the Works of Troubadours or “Another France” Through the Language Lens. Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 19: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, no. 1, pp. 22–37. (In Russ.)

6. Zagryazkina T.Yu. 2005. Kontsept “Provans” v kul’ture Frantsii [The concept of “Provence” in the culture of France]. Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 19: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, no. 2. S. 59–76. (In Russ.)

7. Kisser T.S. 2019. Virtual’naya identichnost’ rossiiskikh nemtsev [Virtual identity of Russian Germans]. Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniya [Siberian historical research], no. 2. Virtual Ethnicity and Cyber Ethnography. S.Yu. Belorussova, A.V. Golovnev (eds.), pp. 64–64. (In Russ.)

8. Moiseeva D.P. 2019. “Oulivo” kak identifikator Provansa v yazyke F. Mistralya [“Oulivo” as an identifier of Provence in the language of F. Mistral]. Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 19: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, no. 3, pp. 68–76. (In Russ.)

9. Plassero I. 2019. Identichnost’ narodov Evropy [Identity of the peoples of Europe.]. Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Nestor-Istoriya. (In Russ.)

10. Tishkov V.A., Shabaev Yu.P. 2013. Etnopsikhologiya. Politicheskie funktsii etnichnosti [Ethnopsychology. Political functions of ethnicity]. 2nd ed. Moscow. (In Russ.)

11. Chernyavskaya Yu. 2018. Modifikatsii belorusskoi identichnosti: mediinost’ i povsendnevnost’ [Modifications of Belarusian identity: media and everyday life]. In E.I. Filippova, K. Le Torrivellek Svoi i chuzhie. Metamorfozy identichnosti na vostoke i zapade Evropy [Own and alien. Identity Metamorphoses in the East and West of Europe]. Moscow, Goryachaya liniya – Telekom, pp. 126–140. (In Russ.)

12. Shishmarev V.F. 1972. Frederi Mistral’ [Frederi Mistral]. In Shishmarev V.F. Izbrannye stat’i: Istoriya ital’yanskoi literatury i ital’yanskogo yazyka [Selected articles: History of Italian literature and the Italian language]. Moscow, Nauka, pp. 267–283. (In Russ.)

13. Bec P. 1986. La langue occitane. 5-e éd. Paris, PUF. (In French)

14. Chevalier D., Morel A. 1985. Identité culturelle et appartenance régionale: Quelques orientations de recherche. Terrain, antropologie et sciences humaines, no. 5, pp. 3–5. URL: https://journals/oppenedition.org/terrain/2878 (accessed: 14.02.2020). (In French)

15. Sirinelli J.-F. (dir.) 1999. Dictionnaire de l’Histoire de France. Paris, Armand. (In French)

16. Lenclud G. 1987. La tradition n’est plus ce qu’elle était. Sur les notions de tradition et de société traditionnelle en ethnologie. Terrain. Anthropologie et Sciences humaines, no. 9. Habiter la maison, pp. 110–123. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/terrain/3195 (accessed: 14.02.2020). (In French)

17. Pelen. J.-N. (1) 1992. Chanson, histoire: Chanter et être en Cévennes. Les voies de la parole: Ethnotextes et littérature orale, approches critiques. Aix-en-Provence, Publications de l’Université de Provence, pp. 160–175. (In French)

18. Pelen J.-N. (2) 1992. La recherche sur les ethnotextes: Notes sur un cheminement. Actes du Congrès international de dialectologie à Bilbao le 21–26 octobre 1991. Grenoble, pp. 716–720. (In French)

19. Pouillon J. 1975. Fétiches sans fétichisme. Paris, Maspero. (In French)