The imaginary Marseille

Introduction

If there is one town in France which stimulates the imagination more powerfully and with more contrasting images than any other, if there is one town which divides opinion into two more opposite extremes, passion or hatred, it is without doubt Marseille. Travel guides, those purveyors of dreams both past and future, still testify to this oddity: “France’s second city,” we read in the 2010 edition of the Guide Routard, “Marseille remains, from one millennium to another, one vast theatre where the shows follow on one after the other without a break (….) Marseille is an astonishing city, all its inhabitants are born actors who don’t give a fig whether the audience likes them or not, they act first and foremost for themselves. So forget any pre-conceived ideas you may have had about Marseille, those you had before the curtain went up. Let’s for the moment forget that you emptied your car in the car park, glancing furtively around as you walked away from it, forget that ever since you came off the motorway you’ve been ranting about the traffic jams, staring astonished at a landscape devastated by concrete high-rise blocks when you thought you were coming to the land of the sun.”

This extraordinary entry claims to cut through all the usual clichés about Marseille (its two thousand year roots, the loudmouth people, the lilting accent, the sun, Pagnol, Pastis, soap, the siesta – but also the crime, the dirt) while at the same time accepting them because without them Marseille would not be Marseille. This is why we go to Marseille in the first place, and the authors of the Routard know it well….After their opening they emphasise the town’s hidden beauty, boast its cosmopolitanism, the charm of its chaotic urbanisation, they welcome the cultural joys of a city which is permanently bubbling, in brief, believing they have escaped one list of stereotypes they fall ineluctably into another. Marseille is without doubt the city in France for which the word “reputation” fits best. We’ve looked at a few examples of the media’s coverage of the town, and like the guide books they relay the same clichés and stereotypes which for the most part, were forged in the 19^th century, the period on which our essay will focus.

Marseille is thus not just a town stimulating the imagination, its very identity feeds off the same imaginary imagery, sometimes to the point of caricature. The way its inhabitants, administrators, journalists – sometimes even its scientists – describe their town is inspired by these images, reflect them or denounce them, but no one can deny that the imaginary city is a pillar of Marseille’s identity. This complex but imagined vision has been at work continuously for several centuries, enriching the town’s identity, both history and memory. I have broken it down into three sections, wild, open and criminal.

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Introduction

I- Wild

II- Open

III- Criminal

Conclusion

Bibliographical suggestions

Abstract

Author

Regnard Céline
Lecturer in contemporary history, University of Aix-Marseille, TELEMME, MMSH.