Whilst retracing the history of Bande Dessinée (Franco-Belgian comic book art), Groentseen situates Pinchon and Caumery’s albums as the Ninth Art’s very beginnings. Their heroin’s name, Bécassine, is the diminutive of bécasse which ‘designates in its literal meaning, wading birds, celebrated for their flesh and their lack of intelligence; in its figurative sense, silly women or young girls.’ Although created in 1905 by Jacqueline Rivière and drawn by Pinchon, for La Semaine de Suzette, Bécassine was reborn in 1913 under Caumery’s scenarist skills, as the latter was invested in creating Bécassine a life and identity the publication of L’Enfance de Bécassine.
Champseix explains in the introduction of his 1984 thesis how his research explores the evolution of Breton identity to its end. ‘Chateaubriand is the first of author that turns Brittany into a literary genre and to proclaim its quality of Breton identity. Bécassine, the little Breton maid, is a derisory symbol, and the parallel established with Chateaubriand implies the notion of image degradation.’ Breton identity and its portrayal by the French being profoundly political ‘Bécassine is also the end of an epoch as she bears witness to Breton legitimists surrendering to their representations’.
Champseix, and later on Couderc add class struggle to this political analysis. Bécassine, the dumb, clumsy yet good-hearted maid to a Bourgeois family ‘is the living proof of bourgeois ideology’s victory over rural aristocracy.’ As Groensteen points out, Bécassine albums engage with a higher social class, whilst contemporary similar cartoons such Louis Forton’s Pieds Nickelés, who attract a lower classed audience.
Couderc further explores such elitism in her analysis of gender construction and class struggle throughout Bécassine’s original comic strips in La Semaine de Suzette. Couderc’s denunciation of Bécassine’s inherent sexism was countered a year later by Davreux, from the Catholic University of Louvain, who defended Bécassine albums as contextually feminist.
Nevertheless, Pinchon and Caumery’s delightfully-stupid maid and her adventures under the Marquise de Grand-Air’ service, has brought up generations since its creation in 1905. Although Bécassine’s implicit impact was phenomenal (ie: Bécassine as Hergé’s inspiration for Tintin’s ligne claire), this essay explores the explicit impact the Breton maid has had, with artists reinterpreting the character throughout the XXth century. It attempts to understand the evolutions of the cartoon character, as well as the extent to which fame and controversy surrounding the cartoon character impacted this evolution, and the ends of each reinterpretation.
The primary source material testifies of Bécassine’s impact and plasticity: First World War patriotic cartoons, an ambiguous wartime film of the Phoney War, an adult song from the 1950s-60s, television extracts of children songs of the 80s, and a poster for the Parti Socialiste Unifié’s Breton department. This selection not only allows a chronological span of the XXth century, but also an inter-disciplinary approach to the character which is lacking from Bécassine’s historiographical debate. Due to limited historiography on Bécassine’s evolution separate from La Semaine de Suzette and Pinchon and Caumery’s albums, this essay is structured around the themes found in the original cartoons, and how they were omitted, denounced or perpetuated. Thus, it will explore each set of primary sources’ positions on Breton identity, class struggle and gender.
When the war was declared in 1914, Bécassine had already acquired national fame. Despite Pinchon’s having been called up, the Breton maid pursued her adventures with Ziep’s artistic talent, in both newspaper and album form. 1915 is a turning point for Bécassine, as her everyday life becomes tainted with war time experience, as seen in five albums: Bécassine Pendant La Guerre (1915), Bécassine Chez Les Alliés (1917), Bécassine Mobilisée (1918) and Bécassine chez les Turcs (1919).
Wartime Bécassine albums ambiguously address Breton and Celtic themes due to the context of national and imperial unity. Bécassine’s Breton identity recurs throughout the albums. In Bécassine pendant la Guerre, Bécassine’s favourite soldier at the hospital is Breton Rouzic as they talk of their homeland in their ‘patois’ (dialect). Her interactions with other Celtic nations remain under a French perspective: the Scottish major from Bécassine Chez Les Alliés is called ‘Major Tacy-Turn’. Nevertheless, her costume remains identical throughout the 1915 album, whilst the other characters change uniforms when contributing to the war effort (Madame de Grand-Air adorns a nurse’s outfit whilst Zidore appears in military uniform). Similarly, Bécassine only changes headdress when she and Madame dress up as Alsatians. This contrast is graphically accentuated by the difference in the way French characters are accurately sketched and Bécassine and her family member’s cartoon-like depiction.
As discerned by Champseix, Bécassine’s Breton identity also appears in her character traits. In this instance, her ignorance is adapted to educate young girls on the Great War. As she does not read the papers, she is oblivious to any rising tension in Europe. She fails to understand the slang Boche’ —referring to Germans— and consequently assumes a war against the Boche, an inexistent people (as they do not appear in her atlas) is impossible. Her goodwill is undermined by her limited education and lack of expertise (the spelling mistakes on the board aimed at protecting Madame’s wine cellar). This amusing and touching trait is best voiced by Madame: ‘That Bécassine! … so little brain but so much heart!’.
Such attachment between the protagonist and her young female readers is played upon for patriotic purposes. For example, when Bécassine encounters young female fans in Alsace, ‘she feels that she loves them with all heart, her remote little sisters, once again French … and that she loves through them the dear provinces that our soldiers’ bravery has recaptured.’ Caumery and Zier use their Breton maid to glorify military conquest (children in traditional Alsatian clothing and French rosettes, ) and empire (her pride in knowing Corentin is the Napoleon of Clocher-Les-Bécasses). This view can also be quite negative nevertheless, as demonstrated when Bécassine and Corentin are faced with France’s colonised people in the military hospital: Corentin is at a loss for words when seeing the Prince’s black skin (‘the prince, he's a Negro, black like skin’) and the Zouave tricks Bécassine into believing the Prince is a ‘savage’ (she is that he neither knows etiquette, nor speaks French, and is a cannibal). Madame, as a good bourgeoise reassures Bécassine and explains that Prince Boudou was raised by missionaries and is a war hero. Bécassine pendant la Guerre details a united and patriotic home front. Consequently, a feeling of national unity, of defence of the fatherland and of love of the Empire emerges through Bécassine’s ridiculed actions and goodwill and the other characters’ actions (i.e.: Madame de Grand-Air and her war-time hospital).
The hierarchical society portrayed in Bécassine’s wartime albums reveals the social and economic issues of L’Union Sacrée. When seeking Bécassine’s identity in Bécassine Pendant la Guerre, the station captain inquires who she is, and her occupation. Bécassine defines herself in acronym form, omitting her Breton identity, yet adds her employer’s name (Bécassine Madame de Grand-Air’s Maid). Further in the album, she falls victim of republican meritocratic ideology, as her lack of any diploma bars her from nursing patients, yet her lack of literacy and her social background prevent her from sitting any exams. Corentin’s dreams for Clocher-Les-Bécasses (his failed attempt of communal farming, and thus his criticism of property) further reveal the extent to which France is divided. His visions further accentuate the urban-rural opposition when he claims the village to be a ‘fortified town’.
Bécassine also offers an insight into a socially hierarchised war effort. Although both Bertrand de Grand-Air and Zidore both join the army, they have different ranks within the army due to their social status. The jobs left vacant by enlisted men are manned by political refugees, such as the Belgian refugee who Bécassine and Zidore have to drive around Paris. When calling in the military hospital, the Inspector-Doctor remembers Bécassine’s lack of etiquette (she kisses him thinking he is her friend Bertrand). Finally, in Bécassine Mobilisée, the women within the household react differently when Bertrand announces he is returning to the Front: Bécassine compares her emotional outburst to Madame de Grand-Air’s and Bertrand’s wife’s stiff upper lip (‘were not crying’); ‘seeing them so courageous, it made me ashamed to be it so little’.
Bécassine’s wartime involvement is a gendered one. Her devotion to France is declined through her many actions and roles in the comic strips, whether official (as the tramway driver on line 38) or officious (seeking German spies). Yet her actions are set in a patriarchal society: whilst the women in the military hospital are either nurses or administrators, the men are their hierarchical superiors (doctors and inspectors). As the war rages on , female labour becomes a necessity, the albums gradually grant Bécassine more masculine occupations (as the tramway driver on line 38).
With the albums’ emphasis on national unity, Bécassine’s female emancipation is undermined. Caumery depicts a total mobilisation (from the old Garde-Champêtre barricading the village, to the Alsatian children wearing French rosettes). Although France suffers from a shortage of male labour, Caumery and Zier chose to replace men with male children. Possibly used for comical purposes, this device does infantilise women. Thus Davreux’s argument that Bécassine’s car driving is a symbol of female emancipation falls apart when Vieux-Serviteur’s eleven-year-old son drives the phrenologist’s car. Bechtel adds ‘The war of 14-18 (…) led to women being demobilised when they were sent back to their households, and later to the rebirth of popular antifeminism (1930-1960)’.
Historian Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau states that ‘Bécassine’s adventures brings to mind an archaic France which the war was in the process of questioning, and sometimes discreetly criticizing a certain type of stupidity conveyed by war culture’. Caumery follows the initial trend of glorifying civil wartime effort in 1915 (, and later nuances his narration on the war (Zidore’ talks of the Front, explaining daily life in the trenches and how to survive gaz). The Bécassine being educational cartoons, they reveal the extent of complete mobilisation. Ultimately Caumery and Zier chose to promote an ‘asceptic’ vision of the war, in line with La Semaine de Suzette’s editorial line.
On the Third of September 1940, Bécassine was brought to cinema screens by Pierre Caron and a then-famous cast of Vaudeville actors and actresses such as Max Dearly and Paulette Dubosc. René Pujol’s scenarios, presented on the opening credits as inspired from Pinchon and Caumery’s Bécassine albums, is a cinematographic representation of the 1927 L’Automobile de Bécassine album. The film starts with Bécassine’s return to the Château des Genêts d’Or, where she works as a cook and a maid to Madame De Grand-Air, her daughter Annie (Loulotte in the albums) and the phrenologist and family friend Mr Proey-Minans. When the Grand-Air family falls into financial issues, Madame decides to transform the castle into a Bed and Breakfast. However, the Tampicos —the mother, daughter and son (Joseph)— turn out to be difficult customers, and are reluctant to pay. Meanwhile, Annie and country doctor Paul, whom Madame disagrees of, plan to escape and marry secretly. Climax is reached when the Tampico’s jewels go missing and Paul, the primary suspect, is locked up. A British detective, disguised as a paying guest, is sent to the castle by the jewel insurance company. Madame sacks Bécassine because of her cooking and attitude. Joseph Tampico gets caught by the household when trying to retrieve the jewels in he had hidden in Bécassine’s bags. The mystery is thus elucidated, Paul is freed and Madame seeks Bécassine’s pardon. The film ends on a Breton-themed ball held at the Château.
This film is in continuity with previous portrayals of idealised Breton identity. Although the film is set in Brittany, only the first twenty-five seconds of the film depict a pastoral landscape with added Celtic items (Celtic crosses; peaceful villages and farms; miniature menhirs). This is to be opposed to the panoramic trailing of an unknown town which introduces Bécassine’s arrival by bus. Bécassine, in line with Pinchon and Caumery’s work, is a further allegory of Breton identity.
According to Champseix’s work, Caron reuses Classical depiction of Breton identity. Bécassine shows courage (she swears to protect Annie and Paul), sincerity (she infuriates Madame throughout her service), stubbornness and independence (she is able to ignore her employer’s threats, and yet leaves the Château when offended) and hubris (she returns to the Château and insists on the Breton-themed ball). Missing from Classical Breton identity are examples of piety, although her dedication to Breton traditions (especially marriage) could possibly be interpreted as ironical piety.
Bécassine can also fit in the Romantic construction of Bretons. Her originality (her exotic cooking, costume, and even accent) and mood swings (her sudden —yet fake—crying after Madame’s threats, equally sudden joy following Madame’s exit from the scene) are two out of four barbaric character traits commonly attributed to Bretons. Violence (dramatisation leads Becassine to appear far wilder in her cushioned environment), and madness (Bécassine’s love for her pig Antonio) are more matters of the audience’s interpretation. Passion and suicide do not appear in this film, as the film situates itself in the same bourgeois line than the albums.
Finally, Bécassine complies to modern Breton stereotypes. Bécassine’s costume is as plain and impersonal as in the albums, whilst the Breton costumes for the ball are traditional and beautiful (with intricate lace) and Bécassine’s costume stays identical (except her headdress, which she changes for another historically inaccurate lace headdress). She is portrayed as child-like (she acts out her words and cries). Her ignorance is further exaggerated than the albums, as she can neither read or write. Her uncle Corentin’s character is reduced to his alcoholic excesses (unlike the rounded yet excessive character in the albums). The friendship between Bécassine and her acolyte Hillarion (Zidore in the albums) is played as a rivalry in the film. This further accentuates the fact that despite they come from the same social ranking, Bécassine speaks informally (with eaten-up vowels and onomatopoeias) whilst Hillarion’s language is correct, eloquent and articulate.
Bécassine’s comical genre offers a critical representation of French social classes of the 1940’s. The falling aristocracy is condensed to Madame de Grand-Air’s character. Like in the albums, Annie and Madame are only depicted carrying out respectable activities (such as reading, playing the piano and sowing). Yet in the film, her character spans from financial excess (she has to host paying guests to cover her onerous living costs), social excess (her repulsion to anything common) to ridiculous etiquette (her inability to refuse her guests’ humiliating queries). Caron uses cinematographic technique to further ridicule the character, such as crown shaped transitions and pompous background music. The Tampico family act as nouveaux riches, and live up to the fears aristocrats of such rising class (dishonest funds). Doctor Paul on the other hand symbolises the honest middle class as he is educated yet employed, has learnt etiquette yet contours it. Although Bécassine is a primary character to the plot, the lower class characters (Bécassine, Hillarion and Corentin) see their personal interests neglected, even laughed at (Hillarion and Bécassine’s love interests).
Pierre Caron’s production is tainted with contemporary debates. The characters’ hopes, doubts and fears reflect France’s situation in 1939. When told Chicago is not it in Japan, Bécassine answers ‘you sure, it’s not changed ? well, there’s been so many upheavals this year !’, ironising 1939’s tense geopolitics. Faced with the impossibility of marrying Annie, Paul wishes a pandemic to kill off his rivals, to which Annie answers that it would not be ‘very practical’, possibly lightly foreshadowing the Second World War. Madame and the phrenologist wish for an invention that could keep them safe from tax, inflation, deflation, an obvious reference to the Wall Street Crash and the Front Populaire’s social reforms. Lastly, Pierre Caron’s film is centred around the danger of letting strangers into your home, as voiced by Annie, Madame and the phrenologist (‘one no longer feels at home’), which is proved right by the Tampicos’ immoral behaviour. This apology of French xenophobia (particularly anti-Semitism) in the 1930’s and 1940’s is highlighted when Pierre Caron openly collaborated with Vichy France, producing for ‘Continental’ Productions. The theme of initially star-crossed lovers who finally marry —although echoing Comedia dell’Arte or Vaudeville theatre— was exceedingly popular in French collaborating cinema, as a way to distract and pacify occupied audiences.
Despite a gender equal cast, Bécassine’s emphasis on female characters reveals female stereotypes of the time. The film has flattened the album characters to simple character straights. The men (Hillarion, Corentin, Mr Proey-Minans, Doctor Paul and the detective) appear in the film in link to the female characters (Bécassine, Annie, Madame de Grand-Air, Tampico mother and daughter). The men are either content bachelors or viciously seeking women (Mr Proey-Minans is implicit on his physical attraction to Tampico daughter and Joseph insists on marrying Annie for her financial comfort). The women fit Bechtel’s analysis of the Catholic Church’s construction on gender. Bécassine’s role is set by her name, Annie and Tampico daughter are respectively archetypes of the Saint and the Slut. The film’s absence in the film of any patriarchal presence and Annie’s emancipating age transform Madame’s role as a mother to a household administrator. Bécassine’s uncontrolled dancing and singing strikes against Annie and Madame’s controlled behaviour, and further accentuates her lack of femininity. Davreux argues that Bécassine’s non-use of make-up offers is a sign of emancipation. Ultimately, the recurring play on Bécassine’s future marriage, Mr. Proey-Minans’ crude gestures and Annie’s fulfilment in securing a marriage illustrate both the contempt, even a repulsion to the feminine sex, and feminine conformation to this construction.
Pierre Caron here portrays his political views unto Bécassine’s character and world. Although the plot resembles Marivaux’s work, due to similar light hearted portrayals of master and servant relationship, as well as the love and marriage issue, Caron differs in his lack of character emancipation. The film thus encourages conforming to hegemonic traditional values, echoing Vichy France’s slogans (‘Travail, Famille Patrie’). The immediate Nazi censorship of the Bécassine albums (due to germanophobic positions during the previous war) when entering the capital, whilst Caron’s film was released further reveals his use of Bécassine’s image.
In post May 68 France, Brassens sings of the love tale between Bécassine and his anarchist Breton friend and poet Armand Robin. The song spins cyclically as Brassens declines his admiration for Bécassine, her courtiers’ envy and Robin’s victory in three ways. Published as a poet, Brassens’ lyrics are often analysed as poems. Bécassine is constructed with thirteen octosyllabic stanzas, with alternating quatrains and sestets (with a final repetition of a sestet), all rhyming in AABB or AABBCC form. Brassens, as usual, classifies unconventional stories by using traditional themes, rhyming patterns and styling devices.
The song is an ode to rurality when Brassens reappropriates and personificates the Breton landscape as Bécassine’s fictional yet human form. Rurality appears through the song’s pastoral semantic field. It qualifies Bécassine’s physical traits (‘un champ de blé’; ‘deux pervenches’; ‘deux guignes’) which are blossoming (‘prenait/aient racine’). Brassens’ description of her courtiers and her lover help create a whole landscape, both political (‘seigneurs’; ‘hobereaux’; ‘gentillâtres’) and physical (‘lopin’; ‘jardin’; ‘verger’). Rurality is further amplified with Brassens’ use of classical references. Indeed, he compares Bécassine’s blond locks to the Golden Fleece, the mythical trophy which brought fertility and abundance. Her beautiful blues eyes which dethrone mythical queen Semiramis, leave Bécassine unrivalled throughout time and space, but also through the social hierarchy.
In Bécassine Brassens offers a cynical view of countryside social classes. He constructs this song in three distinctive parts, each made of two quatrains and two sestets. Social distinctions appear in each part’s first quatrain and sestet (‘les seigneurs’; ‘les grands noms (…) / à particules’; ‘les hobereaux, les gentillatres’). Bécassine’s courtiers are both distinguishable by their financial and political position, as well as their aspirations relative to Bécassine. The Lords hope to marry her, and pursue a noble lineage with her (‘joindre à leur blason’), the noblemen wish to hand her their financial and political assets with her (‘auraient cédé tous leurs acquis’) whilst the country squires want to take advantage of her as their prostitute (‘auraient bien mis leur bourse à plat / pour s’offrir ces deux guignes là’). These descending tendencies of both social status and morality are countered by continuous references to popular culture. Brassens reaches out to all generations with his repeated saying ‘si le diable ne s’en mêle pas’, as well as the references to Jack Lantier’s La chanson des Blés d’Or and Charles Trenet’s Fleur Bleue. Most notably, he also refers to ‘Le Temps des Cerises’, the anthem of the May 1871 Parisian Commune. Although Brassens probably selected this song for its universality, as it has been commonly reinterpreted and reintegrated to popular culture, the chronological evolution built around the three songs reveal his revolutionary penchants.
Bécassine is an homage to Robin and thus anarchism. Brassens presents Robin as the winner (‘vaincqueur’) of Bécassine’s heart, and compares the courtiers’ positions and interests. The second quatrain and sestet are dedicated to Robin, and parallel the courtiers’ positions and interests. Thus, Robin’s particule appears in the ‘une espèce de’ anaphore , and his titles are as listed: ‘manant’, ‘robin’, ‘gredin’, ‘étranger’. Brassens pursues his gradation by playing on absurdism, and claiming that he owns less than the shadow of a ‘lopin’, a ‘jardin’, a ‘verger’. Lastly, Robin is entitled to sing the songs of Golden Wheats, of Blue Flowers and of Cherries, as he accomplished each of his rivals’ desires. His satisfaction to everything (‘un soupirant de rien du tout’) and his love of life (‘un amoureux du tout-venant’) explains Bécassine’s disadvantageous choice.
Brassens’ countering of Breton stereotypes gives birth to a new Bécassine. By listing the financial and political advantages her courtiers’ withhold, as well as Robin’s disadvantages, Bécassine complies to Le Coadic’s stereotype of the ignorant Breton. Yet Brassens reinterprets this character trait as incredible lucidity, as she selects immaterial benefits over material ones. This choice makes her go against society’s norms, and situates Bécassine with an identical political agenda to Robin’s. The Romantic vision of the barbaric and revolting Breton is thus revised to a political refusal of the status quo. Finally, the use of repetitions in the song reinforce her love for Robin, and reinterprets Classical attributes to Bretons, such as mood swings, stubbornness and hubris, to legitimate life-lasting loyalty and devotion.
Brassens not only taints Bécassine with Armand Robin’s ideals, but also with several themes common to his repertoire. Firstly, this is the very first fully-feminised depiction of Bécassine. Her physical attributes are all physical attributes (golden locks, eyes and lips), to the exception of her headdress. The latter is vague, as Brassens does not precise which Breton headdress it is, possibly to unite Breton imagery. Such attitude strikes against the commonly found perspectives in French literature since the Middle Ages that claim Breton ladies (epitomised in their inappropriately named headdresses) are ugly.
Brassens not only feminises Bécassine, he also sexualises her. Echoing the descent in social classes, and the consequential downsizing of property (from fields of wheat to cherries), Brassens builds a last downward motion on Bécassine’s physique. The wordplay on ‘guignes’leaves the audience wondering whether this motion was focused on Bécassine’s face, or went from head to toe. As Bécassine’s sexualisation becomes possible prostitution (‘auraient bien mis leur bourse à plat / pour s’offrir ses deux guignes là’), Brassens differs from his traditional eulogy of prostitutes such as in Complainte Des Filles De Joie, he counts the daily dangers and difficulties prostitutes encounter.
Finally, Brassens empowers Bécassine. Bécassine is in direct lineage of Bécassine’s past representations as she is narrated in third person form in the song. Similarly to Pinchon and Caumery’s albums, the audience accesses to Bécassine’s thoughts without her voicing them. Due to her refusal of status quo, Bécassine here is both voiced and voiceless. However, in Bécassine, Brassens breaks away from his habit of narrating love adventures in first person such as (Le Parapluie, Je suis un Voyou, Putain de Toi, Les Sabots d’Hélène). Therefore, the absence of Brassens’ usual narrative voice creates both an innovative proximity between Bécassine and the audience, as well as a sense of Vérité Générale. Combined to the complimentary tone of the song, this distance ultimately provides the reverse effect than in the original albums: admiration.
To conclude, Brassens creates an adult song around Bécassine to cater for a matured audience who was brought up on Bécassine albums. Although his Bécassine are narrated in third person, his reinterpretation is innovating. Bécassine becomes a human being with critical thought, even cunningness. Through men’s gaze, she becomes a woman, with memorable physical attributes. Brassens present a financially, socially and even sexually emancipated Bécassine. He catches the aftermath of May 68, where youth and working fought ideologically for their freedom and a better future. Although this song is not as famous as its author, it has even integrated today’s music scene, with Brassens’ not Dead’s production of a punk version of Bécassine in their third album.
In the 1980’s, popular culture, especially under the French umbrella term of chansons de variété, intervened further into everyday lives with the democratisation of television. Talk shows celebrating French variétés artists, like Maritie and Gilbert Carpentier’s Numéro Un widened their audiences to include variétes sung for children. On these shows, famous French artists —such as Brassens, Aznavour… or international stars —such as The Police, George Michael, Prince…— would act out their songs. Bécassine was brought back on the music scene by Carlos (1979) and Chantal Goya (???).
Both adapt Breton themes for children when depicting Bécassine in songs. Whilst Brassens deconstructed the ballad, Carlos and Goya celebrate rurality through bagpipes (in both instances) or the accordion (Carlos). This rural aspect is further amplified with Carlos’ choice of choir (geese) and decor (fence), as well as with Goya’s props (wooden basket and checkered Vichy-patterned cloth). Yet both singers dehumanise Bécassine’s traditional costume, as Bécassine’s circular/retound/spherical head and hands are made out of felt, the rest of her body being hidden. Goya therefore breaks away from her habit of dressing herself —or celebrities— up, whilst Carlos goes against his predilection for human choirs and dance troupes. Such dehumanisation upkeeps anti-Breton stereotypes (Carlos and Goya play on Bécassine’s clumsiness), softened by Bécassine’s kind heart (Carlos defends her intentions and Goya’s Bécassine helps out children). In their defence, both break away from the common representation of Bretons as ignorant, as Goya’s Bécassine can finally write and Carlos’s Bécassine consciously choses her flaws for a better good.
Carlos and Goya were performing for different audiences. Whilst Carlos, dressed as Bécassine, speaks in first person, Carlos sings of Bécassine in third person. On the one hand, Bécassine exists for herself, on the other she only exists through a non-Breton spectre. If Bécassine audience has not changed since the 60s, Couderc’s research could imply that Goya’s first person could be Parisian bourgeois young girls. It could also be referring to the descendants of Breton migrants to Paris who are thus second-generation Bretons (‘grand-mère’), thus explaining the hereditary claim between Bécassine and the first person (‘cousine’).
Bécassine’s gender portrayal is in link with the set audiences of both songs. Carlos, by reappropriating popular culture with his rendition of ‘Vive la Bretagne’ (a famous chanson paillarde), set a wide audience. Yet unlike his 1976 satire of British culture on the same chanson paillarde, Ils Ont Des Chapeaux Ronds, Vive La Bretagne reveals no underlying sexualisation which Carlos has come to symbolise. Furthermore, his dressing-up as Bécassine could both symbolise gender reversal (as in the Bal des Bécassines in Bailleul, where selected men dress up as Bécassine yearly), or denounce Bécassine’s lack of femininity (which Davreux sees as emancipation). Goya’s performance is less ambiguous. Celebrated in 1981 as a monument of French culture and sung by Juliette Gréco, Bécassine fits gender constructs of the time, such as Chantal Goya’s flowing white dress. Although Davreux insists on how Bécassine is illustrated driving planes and cars, her dehumanised aspect enable her character to drive cars in a sexist society.
Ultimately, both of Carlos and Chantal Goya’s Bécassines are incomplete representations of the character. Whilst Carlos attempts to defend Bécassine’s role as a source of entertainment (‘Si je fais des bêtises (…) Tout au long des bandes dessinées / C’est pour faire rire), Goya decides to condense Pinchon and Caumery’s albums. Yet her vulgarisation of L’Enfance de Bécassine, confuses Caumery’s attempt at creating a character from a caricature. Nevertheless, Pinchon’s efforts led to the creation of the character’s name (Annaïk Labornez) and story (the family feud between Labornez and Quillouch). It also anchored Bécassine in a negative depiction, because when read out loud, the characters are called ‘the stubborn one’ (la bornée) and ‘who squints’ (qui louche). Thus Carlos’ and Goya’s choice non to call Bécassine could also be a means of emancipating her from her past.
Whilst Bécassine was entertaining children on television, Le Quernec used Bécassine in Brittany to woo Bretons to vote for the Parti Socialiste Unifié (PSU). Although its date (1981) correlates for both presidential elections (won by François Mitterrand) and the legislative elections, the themes addressed in the poster tend towards the latter. Indeed, this poster, built on oppositions, emphasises on local decisions in order to link up socialist ideology with Breton identity.
Déçidons Chez Nous depicts a renewed pride in Breton identity. The slogan (‘Let’s Decide at Home’) creates the impression of euphony or harmony whilst emphasising on the number of Bretons, and their shared home, Brittany. This united Breton voice could also echo Marx’s cry for proletarian unity. Either way, this is very first time the first person plural is used in a reinterpretation of Bécassine. Le Quernec also reuses Bécassine’s costume by opposing complementary colours: green, red and pink. Celticness (green), the PSU (pink), socialism (red), revolt (red), the Bonnets Rouges (red) and possibly even an ecological awakening (green) are evoked through this poster. The use of colours is further reinforced by the use of black and white in the costume, the lettering and the background. The black of her turtle neck and sleeves, although part of her usual depiction, seem to have more important proportions than in unusual depictions, possibly Le Quernec’s denunciation of Breton enslavement to the French. Le Quernec’s choice of keeping Bécassine’s headdress despite it being fictional, is a further attempt to unite Bretons behind a non-specific headdress and a denunciation of French ignorance of Breton culture. Although the superposition of the white headdress on a white background could also imply repositioning tradition and past to background importance (as opposed to modernity and future). Similarly, by depicting only Bécassine’s bust, Le Quernec crops out her most rural feature (clogs) and emphasises on her socialist fist.
Bécassine is portrayed as an empowered woman through socialism. The red of her dress (accentuating a feminised bust) echoes the red of the slogan. Painting Bécassine bust onwards recalls previous feminist economic and political imagery such as Rosie the Riveter (similar sleeve on the shoulder). It also allowed Le Quernec to zoom onto the character and depict Bécassine in a detailed and feminised way. Thus, by positioning Bécassine’s eyes at the centre of the poster, attention is drawn to a feminised and expressive face. The direction of her gaze is more emphasised upon than in the cartoons. Although her pink cheeks could refer to the 1913 L’enfance de Bécassine album, and consequently to Chantal Goya’s song, they were most likely pink to feminise Bécassine (which Davreux would disagree of), or even accentuate Bécassine’s moving, subversive nature expressed in the poster. Bécassine’s empowerment is best symbolised by her wide open mouth (unlike Rosie the Riveter), possibly reminding Bretons of previous populous revolts (such as the Commune and May 68) and their consequent partisan chants (such as Le Temps des Cerises and Dominique Grange’s Les Nouveaux Partisants).
Le Quernec repositions Bécassine within the class struggle. Firstly, the entire poster is built on an upward motion. Although this probably antagonises higher social classes, due to France’s centralised state related in sayings such as ‘monter à Paris’, the upward direction could also be fuelling anti-centralised, regionalist even nationalist views. The upward motion seen in the slant of both slogan and red line, the direction of her eyes and face, her headdress (usually seen bent downwards) and fist, emphasises the horizontal party logo. This contrast and the general motion of the poster (Bécassine’s body directing the eye in a diagonal upward movement) symbolise both class movement. Action in the poster is both explicit (the lines around the fist) and implicit (the slanting slogan looks like a demonstration banner, reminding the viewer of demonstration snapshots frequently displayed with media). Setting class struggle into action implies a party on the move, and thus look forward into the future. Le Quernec ’s choice of Bécassine illustrates the party’s will of redirecting old ideas into new directions. He thus strikes against Pinchon’s famous use of concise lines (lignes claires) by drawing Pinchon’s character in charcoal, and writes the party logo (PSU) in roman lettering and sprayed graffiti style. Furthermore, the shading of both slogan letters and party logo classify aspects of the picture, giving depth and perspective to the Parti Socialiste Unifié’s ideals.
To conclude, Le Quernec has built his poster on oppositions to shock the viewer. Décidons Chez Nous explores the intensity and plurality of Breton identity. It reuses Bécassine’s initial depiction to denounce French, Bourgeois and sexist means of oppressing the Bretons. Le Quernec’s campaigner is thus a direct descendent of Béchet’s emancipated matron, Carlos’ transvestite questioning. Most importantly, both Le Quernec and Brassens have understood Bécassine’s hidden heritage and have reappropriated it for political campaigning. Sadly, Brassens’ ballad (due to the artist’s fame) is still remembered today, whilst Le Quernec’s poster was only vaguely resuscitated by the Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine ’s exhibition ‘Internationales graphiques. Collections d’affiches politiques 1970-1990’.
The primary sources explored throughout this essay have attempted to revalue Bécassine according to each interpreters’ position on Breton, class and gender identities. Consequently, some portray her voiceless and self-aware, others ridicule her voice, thus further oppressing her. Yet she is a Parisian bourgeois image, and her reinterpretations stay tainted with French imperialism in its simplest ideological form: to the exception of Bécassine’s use of ‘dialect’ in Bécassine pendant la Guerre, she always speaks in French, even when demanding a Breton voice in Le Quernec’s poster.
Although Bécassine is anchored to the Fin de Siècle epoch of which a ‘general consensus unifies Breton identity to a derisory image’, Champseix sees a change of attitude to Breton identity in the end of the sixties. Betchel speaks of the feminine liberation during the First World War, and a resurgence of anti-feminism from the 30s to the 60s. This period is also one of social struggle, symbolised with the two popular uprisings: the Front Populaire and May 68. A chronological reading of these sources does not provide any general pattern which overlaps with research in evolving Breton, class and gender identities throughout the XXth century.
However, a pattern does emerge when analysing these sources according to the audiences they aim to cater for. The albums were originally created for a Bourgeois audience, yet spread to a wider audience once Bécassine achieved national fame. Bécassine’s reinterpretations vary between a continuation of Bourgeois themes (such as Pierre Caron’s film) or countering these themes for a select audience (such as George Brassens’ song and Le Quernec’s poster). The sources seeking a national audience comply to a bourgeois hegemony. Thus Carlos’ and Goya’s songs fit into Lehembre’s remark that ‘historical events are, as such, absent from the Bécassine albums. On the other hand, the hanging climate weighing on the French people’s everyday life is well transcribed’.
Numerous themes and sources are missing from this analysis. A further reading of the Bécassine albums could reveal fascinating insights on educational methods from 1905 to 1960. The 18th of June 1939 decapitation of Bécassine’s wax statue in the Musée Grévin by three Bretons further question Bécassine’s voice with censorship. The consequent mediatisation of this incident in both 1939 and recent years add to the debate the role of the media. Bechet’s jazz song of a bistrot matron named Madame Bécassine,and her cockold husband reveal Paris’ multicultural working class and their emerging culture (such as ‘verlan’ slang) echoing Bécassine’s interactions with immigrants in Paris. Interdisciplinary research could also pursue Bécassine’s impact upon mentalities since its creation. Most famously Hergé directly inspired himself from Pinchon’s style. Yet many others were brought up by Bécassine, from the authors currently writing children’s stories, to more influencing people such as Karl Lagerfeld, Albert Uderzo and Zep.
Created on the 2nd of February 1905, Bécassine melted into contemporary Parisian landscape as 100 000 maids worked in Paris then, of whom the majority were of Breton descent. Historiographical debate has so far concentrated upon whether Bécassine is part of French culture, and what impacts it had upon French mentalities. With the analysis of Bécassine’s reappropriations, the cartoon character gains depth and legitimacy: she is not only part of French culture, she is also a most resourceful testimony of the inner contradictions which have riddled French culture since 1905. Hopefully, the 2018 release of Podalydès’ ‘poetic’ cinematographic interpretation of the Bécassine albums will add yet another facet to the century-old character and initiate further questioning on French culture.