Cookies

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue.

School of Modern Languages & Cultures: Department of French

Staff in the Department of French

Go to the MLAC staff pages.

Publication details for Dr Edward Welch

2001 Welch, Edward. 'Commitment, commercialism and the dawning of image culture the early years of L'Express', Web journal of French media studies 4.
  • Publication type: Journal papers: academic
  • ISSN/ISBN: 1460-6550
  • Keywords: Modernisation, Mass media, Magazine.
  • View online: Online version
  • Durham research online: DRO record

Author(s) from Durham

Abstract

It is the magazine’s [L'Express] evolution over the first ten years of its life which this article sets out to explore. It argues that central to it is a tension between commitment and commercialism: while L’Express may appear to be a committed and earnest journal, it is also a business which must survive in a competitive market. The article goes on to suggest that the working out of this tension in favour of the logic of commercialism, and the magazine’s subsequent transformation from a journal d’opinion into a journal d’information, help bring to light broader trends at work in French culture and society at the time. Most notably, they allow us to observe the birth of both what will become known in the 1960s as the société de consommation, and what we can call the ‘image culture’ which accompanies it.

References

Barthes, Roland (1972) Mythologies. Paris: Seuil, coll. "Points".

Bourdieu, Pierre (1992) Les règles de l’art. Paris: Seuil, coll. "Points".

Bourdieu, Pierre (1994) Raisons pratiques. Paris: Seuil, coll. "Points".

Giroud, Françoise (1972) Si je mens… Paris: Stock.

Perec, Georges (1965) Les Choses. Paris: Julliard.

Ross, Kristin (1995) Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: decolonisation and the re-ordering of French culture. Cambridge, Ma.: The MIT Press.

Serror, Serge (1960) ‘L’Express et l’opinion publique’, Mémoire de DEA, Université de Paris.

Siritzky, Serge and Roth, Françoise (1979) Le Roman de ‘L’Express’. Paris: Marcel Jullian.

Vinen, Richard (1996) France 1934-1970. London: Macmillan.

Weiner, Susan (1995) ‘The Consommatrice of the 1950s and Elsa Triolet’s Roses à crédit’, French Cultural Studies, 17: 123-144.