Xavier Grall - Bretonism

Bretonism

Grall rediscovered his Breton identity in the 1970s, leaving Paris permanently in 1973, returning to Brittany to live at Bossulan Farm in Nizon, just outside Pont-Aven. Grall's reassertion of Breton identity followed a period of disillusionment with France following the Algerian War. He later wrote that the war undermined his belief in the idea of France:

I had done the Algerian War, in the wolfish sun my eyes were opened. Heartbreaking revelation. From Djebel Amour to Montagnes Noires, there were similarities. Same tyrant: the French state. Same victim: the peasant. Same cops: CRS .... When we saw France torture, we could not put that song on the level to which we'd been lulled .... The image of France that I had formed, very high and almost mystical, found itself forever tarnished.

In response he defined himself as Breton in opposition to French identity:

You discover Bretonness as it is not allowed to be. ... And you think that your country does exist, dear God, terribly. You recover. You look straight ahead. You are decolonized. You are Berber, Kabyle, Breton.

From this point on his work emphasise a multicultural ideal, building a unique example of Breton literature in French.

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