Sur la zone

Die französische chanson réaliste und die Inszenierungen ihrer Interpretinnen als „banlieusardes“

Abstract

In the first half of the 20th century, women increasingly took up the legacy of Aristide Bruant and his urban-influenced chanson populaire. It is noticeable that Bruant's mostly humorous depictions of misery and marginalisation of tramps and prostitutes were increasingly transformed into lamentations about the living conditions of the classes populaires in the outskirts and the nearby banlieue of Paris. Looking at song poetry from the entre-deux-guerres to the early 1950s, a gradual transformation of the image of the Parisian banlieue can be observed, which also affects the posture of the female singers. The article traces the successive transformation of the banlieue image and its intertwining with the staging of femininity. In particular, songs by Fréhel, Damia, Lucienne Delyle and Édith Piaf as well as by Yvette Guilbert, who popularised the figure of the “pierreuse” in the song culture of the chanson réaliste, serve as a basis for this analysis.