Between Republic and Market: Globalization and Identity in Contemporary France by Sarah Waters (review)

Reviews 255 of the American magician Houdini. In choosing France as the focal point for the study of magic, Jones, an anthropologist, reveals much about this hidden corner of French society. Looking beyond performances on street corners, in cabarets, or on stages, he finds a complex culture with its own rules determining how secrets are concealed and revealed. His passion for magic and his French language skills allowed him to take advantage of the opportunities that French practitioners offer to new magicians on a path into the profession. Thanks to formal classes and supportive peers in magicians’ social clubs, Jones became proficient enough to be accepted into the Fédération Française des Artistes Prestidigitateurs. He found that, although performance is solitary, preparation is communal, and relationships among magicians are complex. While caution and discretion are woven into personal interactions among professionals, the secrets to the tricks are openly available in the many commercial magic shops of Paris. This knowledge is useless, however, without exceptional technical skill and a profound understanding of the workings of perception. Jones cites a well-known dictum of Robert-Houdin that a magician is “an actor playing the role of a real magician” (15), who must create a certain image,although both performer and audience know the trick is an illusion. The face-to-face performance of magic, devoid of computer-animated effects, is a kind of artisanal experience in a world where audiences are accustomed to mass-mediated entertainment. Linguistically, magicians are members of a speech community with their own verbal practices, from the patter that distracts the spectator ’s attention to the coded phrases magicians use among themselves. Jones’s wideranging study also examines gender issues, economic concerns, and professional pride, as magicians seek respect while they earn a living. Some practitioners work to raise their craft to the level of art, worthy of state patronage and less dependent on market forces. In an odd turn, the father of French magic, Robert-Houdin, is blamed by some French magicians for magic’s struggling status. For them, the weight of his example keeps magic from developing into a more serious art. All in all, the reader is unlikely to encounter anywhere else such a detailed,inside view of this fascinating niche of French life. Even the casual reader will make a mental note to visit the Musée de la Magie in the Marais district of Paris. This well-documented, multi-faceted analysis succeeds completely in presenting magic in France as a distinctive cultural tradition which, amid many difficulties, remains hopeful about its future. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Waters, Sarah. Between Republic and Market: Globalization and Identity in Contemporary France. New York: Continuum, 2012. ISBN 978-1-4411-7208-2. Pp. vii + 209. $34.95. Comment s’est développée l’opposition massive de la France face à la mondialisation depuis la crise économique de 2008? Comment s’est élaboré un manifeste signé en 2010 par 700 économistes face à la montée du néo-libéralisme? Ce sont autant de questions que l’auteure élucide en analysant les divers acteurs à l’origine de cette opposition française. Pour comprendre pourquoi la mondialisation a engendré maintes tensions au sein de la France, Waters brosse les aspects de la culture politique et de l’identité depuis la campagne électorale de Jospin en prenant comme point de départ deux courants opposés de la pensée historique française: les promoteurs d’une conception‘essentielle’(ou héréditaire) de l’identité comme l’historien Jules Michelet d’une part, et d’autre part les défenseurs de l’identité en tant qu’entité en constante mutation. Privilégiant le deuxième courant,Waters explique comment la mondialisation mobilise la Ve République et menace ses principes mêmes: la justice, l’égalité et la solidarité (19). Face à ce rejet de la mondialisation, elle souligne l’importance d’étudescl és menées par des intellectuels de gauche français et anglo-saxons, réponses à ce ‘malaise’ français (25). À ces discours, Waters juxtapose d’autres types de discours contradictoires, voire‘hypocrites’, que des présidents ou premiers ministres ont offerts. Elle...