The Asterix Series as National Myth in Postwar France
In October 1967, the first theme park ever built in France was opened. This was a Gaulish village, Floralix. Visitors could see a chief’s house, a covered market, a bard’s house on stilts, as well as a Roman camp. At the entrance to the village, an imposing statue of a little moustachioed Gaul welcomed visitors. The inscription on the plinth read: “To Asterix, with gratitude, Floralix”. Floralix is just one example of the many ways the Asterix series seized the national imagination from the 1960s. It remains the most successful publishing story in French history. From the publication of the first volume in 1961, to the end of that century, 320 million Asterix books were sold in France. This paper will explore the significance of this success: how the Asterix series became the national myth in the post-war, but also, how its rise was a reflection of and facilitated by France’s trente glorieuses.
Julie Kalman is professor of history at Monash University. She has published widely on the history of French Jewry in the nineteenth century, and in the post-war period. Her most recent book is The Kings of Algiers: How Two Jewish Families Shaped the Mediterranean World during the Napoleonic Empire and Beyond (Princeton University Press, 2023). She is also the author of Orientalizing the Jew: Religion, Culture and Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century France, (Indiana University Press, 2017), and Rethinking Antisemitism in Nineteenth-Century France (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
All welcome- this event is free, but booking is required.
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