American ‘Unculture’ in French Drama: ‘Homo Americanus’ and the Post-1960 French Resistance by Les Essif (review)

This original study, both broad in remit and detailed in its attention to the texts of selected plays, explores the ways in which post-1960 French dramatists have responded to what Les Essif presents as ‘a homo americanus culture of unculture’ (p. 61). These terms have clear lineages: the construction of ‘homo americanus’ (rather than Americans) from Régis Debray, and ‘unculture’ from Jean Baudrillard’s America. The book begins with a lengthy, layered Introduction, which brings together an engaging set of critical contexts including the ‘hyperreal’, ‘unculture’, and Guy Debord’s ‘society of the spectacle’. The over-playful modification of key terms (‘hyperreality’ to ‘hyper-un-reality’, p. 34) is unnecessary, yet the discursive parameters are presented with clarity in relation to the projected tropes of America through archetypal space and character sets. Less helpful are sections that list predictable targets of ‘unculture’ (yard displays, Halloween) and seem out of step with Baudrillard’s attention to the value of popular culture. While the book’s Eurocentric perspective, projecting America as both Other and as shared future, is clearly acknowledged, more sustained attention to ‘relational identities’ (p. 292) and dynamics of ‘Othering’ might have triggered a further development of the critical framework. The well-selected plays provide a welcome combination of the more neglected plays of major dramatists (Bernard-Marie Koltès, Michel Vinaver) and key works of lesser-known writers (Michel Deutsch, Joël Jouanneau). The thematic structure supports a coherent and diverse exploration of the field. Chapter 1 examines spaces of the Far West and, while it glosses discourses of romanticism and imperialism, provides detailed and original discussion of archetypal figures such as Calamity Jane. Chapter 2 focuses on representation of war and violence and includes precise analysis of Koltès’s Sallinger and Vinaver’s 9/11 (although issues of American reception of the latter are not mentioned). Chapter 3’s analysis of the representation of global capitalism and consumerism is lucid and compelling, and focuses almost exclusively on Vinaver, creating striking connections across his œuvre. Chapter 4 reads Deutsch’s Dimanche and Jouanneau’s Les Dingues de Knoxville as representations of America as spectacle and producer of spectacles. Discussion of imagined communities and work on postmodern theatre warranted expansion, perhaps replacing the exploration of Lars von Trier’s Dogville as evidence of a generalized ‘Franco-European mindset’ (p. 271), hampered by its inattention to the specificities of film form. The analytical focus on narrative and character within the plays is cogent and consistent across all chapters, yet there remains a missed opportunity to address potential correlations between performance, mise en scène, and constructions of hyperreality and unreality. The lively flow of the text is disrupted in places by overgeneralization and unclear use of terminology (the ‘hypertheatrical’), and the repeated restating of slightly different aims reveals a sometimes unhelpful diversity of core concerns (the discussion of food policy in Chapter 2 and the Conclusion). This ebullient study remains, however, a dynamic and valuable addition to theatre studies and cultural studies.