Patrick Young,Enacting Brittany: Tourism and Culture in Provincial France,1871–1939

Reviewed by: Eric Storm, Leiden University, Netherlands

A few decades ago, historians still generally assumed that the rise of nation-states seriously weakened older regional identities. Thus, in France, the existing territorial identities of Provence, the Languedoc, Picardie, etc. were largely effaced by a centralized nation-building process. Logically, this process took more time and effort in those parts of the country with a different language, culture and traditions, such as Alsace and Brittany. As a result, scholars focused on the rise of regional or even nationalist movements that resisted the assimilation process that presumably was imposed from the centre.

However, since the early 1990s, the perspective of the growing field of nationalism studies has been applied to regions, which resulted in a radically different view on regionalism. By treating regions as imagined communities in which the collective identity is largely sustained by invented traditions, it became evident that regional identities – like their national counterparts – are constructions. Moreover, it has also been shown that a widespread awareness of a distinct regional collective identity was not something old. Well-defined regional identities were not effaced by the rise of nation-states, but were only constructed towards the end of the nineteenth century when the nation-building process had already advanced substantially. In most cases, historians now learnt, regional movements did not oppose the construction and dissemination of a national consciousness among the population, but in fact stimulated identification with the region as a concrete means to provide the nation with local roots. Thus, in a large majority of cases, a growing regional awareness went hand in hand with a more intimate identification with the existing nation-state. By considering themselves as Normans, Provençals or Savoyards, people also increasingly identified themselves as French; this even was the case for most inhabitants of French Flanders, Alsace, Lorraine, the Basque Provinces and Bretagne.

Both the nation-building process and the construction of regional identities have been studied mainly by focusing on the role of political and intellectual elites. Therefore, scholars implicitly took for granted that these processes were largely directed from above. An original and rather innovative approach to this topic is provided by Patrick Young, who in his Enacting Brittany: Tourism and Culture in Provincial France, 1871–1839 shows that the rise of tourism also had a substantial impact on the construction of regional identities. Although his sources – a wide variety of local, regional and national archival materials, press reports, travel accounts, books and tourist guides – mainly provide insight into the actions of the national and regional elites, he also analyses how economic actors, local authorities and several associations responded to the demand for territorial authenticity by travellers and tourists.

Embedded in a chronological account of the rise and impact of the tourist business in Brittany during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the core of the book is composed of three thematic chapters that deal with Breton costume, religious festivities (the so-called pardons) and landscape preservation during the crucial decades between 1890 and 1930. Young clearly demonstrates how the growing touristic interest in folklore, rural traditions and characteristic landscapes led to the protection and preservation of this supposedly typical regional heritage. Measures were taken to stimulate people to wear traditional costumes, while new folkloric festivities were invented, such as the Fête des Fleurs Ajoncs in Pont-Aven, which was organized by the poet and singer Théodore Botrel in 1905. Pardons that had fallen into disuse were revived, especially in touristic areas, and many of these ‘invented traditions’ became annual events to enliven the summer season. Quimper’s successful Fête des Reines de Cornouaille, which was organized in 1922 by a local café and cinema owner and which rapidly became an annual tradition, was a contest for local beauty queens dressed in Breton costumes. The Touring Club de France, in turn, launched various nation-wide campaigns aimed at preserving typical landscapes, which met widespread approval in Brittany. As a result, various characteristic sites and natural marvels were cordoned off and made available for visitors. All these activities, driven by tourist demand, made Brittany more Breton, and they undoubtedly helped construct a new, more pronounced, regional identity.

Enacting Brittany presents a clever argument, but unfortunately, a conclusion is missing. Although Young analyses the role of a great number of different actors and gives many examples from the entire region, the overall picture remains a bit diffuse. In the end, it is not totally clear what groups (businessmen, intellectuals, politicians, local inhabitants, migrants, fellow-Frenchmen or tourists) were most influential in constructing a more delimited Breton identity and if there were key turning points in this process. It also remains obscure how the Breton case relates to others. Were these developments specific to Brittany, or did they form part of a more general pattern? Nonetheless, the book is a nuanced contribution to the history of tourism and an eye-opener for those interested in the process of regional identity construction.