Stardom in Postwar France

<p> The 1950s and 1960s were a key moment in the development of postwar France. The period was one of rapid change derived from post-World War II economic and social modernization; yet many traditional characteristics were retained. By analyzing the eruption of the new postwar world in the context of a France that was both modern and traditional we can see how these worlds met and interacted and how they set the scene for the turbulent 1960s and 70s. The examination of the development of mass culture in post-war France undertaken in this volume offers a valuable insight into the shifts that took place. By exploring stardom from the domain of cinema and other fields represented here by famous figures such as Brigitte Bardot Johnny Hallyday or Jean-Luc Godard and less conventionally treated areas of enquiry (politics [de Gaulle] literary [Françoise Sagan] and intellectual culture [Lévi-Strauss]) the reader is provided with a broad understanding of the mechanisms of popularity and success and their cultural social and political roles. The picture that emerges shows that many cultural articulations remained or became identifiably French in spite of the American mass-culture origins of these social economic and cultural transformations.</p>