French Literature Reviews - 2026
É. Thiébaut, Mes ancêtres les Gauloises. Une autobiographie de la France
History, Politics and Society
Mes ancêtres les Gauloises. Une autobiographie de la France
Élise Thiébaut
La Découverte, 2019
18 euros
272 pages
ISBN: 9782348037689
Digital ISBN: 9782348043277
Format: EPUB
“The Great Replacement is at our doorstep!”, “European civilization is under threat!”, “Feminism has proclaimed the end of men!”, “National values are being flouted!”… This brief anthology might seem laughable in its absurdity were it not masking very real beliefs and a virulent ideological surge calling for a necessary return to the roots of the “national narrative”.
It is precisely to dismantle the traps of this fiction that Élise Thiébaut sets to work. She begins by questioning her own “identity”: what does the history of this self-proclaimed “native” Frenchwoman have to tell us about the history of France as a whole?
Through DNA testing, genealogical and archival research, she raises questions that expose the taboos and blind spots of our collective memory. What does genetics reveal to us? What are the links between genealogy and patriarchy? What impact did the slave trade and colonization have on her family and, more broadly, on her country? What role did the courtesans and mistresses of the 19th century play in the myth of French seduction?
With acute delight and combative sharpness, the author delivers a singular autobiography of France as an antidote to the traditional national narrative.
The construction of national identity through historical myth-making has long been a subject of critical inquiry within French historiography. By interrogating the concept of a singular, monolithic origin, scholars often seek to uncover the silences and exclusions inherent in traditional narratives. This work uses personal genealogical research to examine the legacies of colonization, the slave trade, and the gendered structures of patriarchy, while questioning the rhetoric that characterizes contemporary debates on national belonging.
The text uses a reflexive approach to investigate the influence of historical social structures on modern perceptions of French identity. It explores the intersection of genetics and social history, questioning how biological heritage relates to the cultural fictions of a nation. Readers interested in the intersection of personal identity, genealogical research, and the critique of nationalistic historical narratives may find this study relevant to their interests.