ABSTRACT
Franois-Ren Cristiani explains to Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Lo Ferr that he has decided to bring them together because he considers that they are the three greatest poets and the three greatest singer-songwriters of French chanson. Barthes theories offer the possibility of examining the trio Brel-Brassens-Ferr from a new perspective. This chapter shows the ways in which revolt, poetry and authenticity contribute to the mechanism of the singer's popularity and then it argues that they contribute to the mechanism behind the trios Frenchness. Discussions and comments of the trios Frenchness, in the media, has greatly underestimated the extent to which Brel, Brassens and Ferr have actually embodied Frenchness, for what their popularity and success also betray is a profound crisis of cultural identity. The main cultural debates that have been identified in the chapter: issue of memory; role of women in society; or importance of supporting national culture; mainly revolve around the necessity to recover from the war.
