Research On The Patriotism In French

Patriotism is a seemingly simple issue which is actually quite complex, especially in France, which has a long history and deep cultural foundation. In this paper, the French patriotism is studied as research subject, and the history is looked as a main line, while patriotism evolution comes to be the basis. Therefore, French patriotism is divided into two major periods. In the first stage, patriotism is a purely geographical and cultural concept. In the second stage, it’s a political concept. The boundary between the two points is the year of1715, since it embodies a "real turning point".Patriotism before1715in the first stage, which is called classical patriotism by the author, has obvious geographical and cultural characteristics. It experienced three major stages through the evolution. Classical patriotism in the initial stage is the love towards tribes, which is a kind of natural emotion similar to child’s attachment to parents. Classical patriotism in the accumulation phase absorbed elements of the Christianity, the central content of which was piety to God. Classical patriotism in the developing stage returned from God’s kingdom to the earth, which was started from the establishment of France, and experienced mother’s love for France, which finally transferred into father’s loyalty for France.Patriotism after1715in the second stage showed clear political connotations. In order to clarify its developing route, the author chose the word "republic", which took important position in French political thought from1715, as breaking point and the republican patriotism as key words, and then conducted investigations into French patriotism after1715. We divide it into four stages:the first is birth of republican patriotism. It mainly focused on searching for trails of republican patriotism from patriotism speech constructing in the18th and analyzed its causes and final process of changing into practice. The second is dormancy of republican patriotism. From Napoleon, French patriotism departed from the tradition of1789, and walked to morass of chauvinism in the realization of the so-called French honor. It continued to lose the right to speak during the subsequent restoration dynasty, July Monarchy and under the rule of the Second Empire. The third is rise of republican patriotism. The Franco-Prussian war was an important symbol of the rise of republican patriotism. It went through secular education, traditional inventions and gambling among kinds of thoughts at home. Since then, it became increasingly consolidated and burst in1914. Although the republican patriotism has experienced several reversal during two world wars, it has been flowing in the Frenchman’s blood as a creed. The fourth is modern development of republican patriotism. The Fourth Republic has been established at the end of the rule of Vichy government and a brief transition of the temporary government. Although the Fourth Republic didn’t last for long, republican patriotism was never interrupted, and it continued in the Fifth Republic. However, important transformation took place quietly:from the original stress response to a reflection-type reaction. Modern French republican patriotism is just away from surging in war years and comes to a state of drizzle dropping softly. In the future, republican patriotism will continue to send out its charm and to meet new challenges of globalization and European integration with more diverse attitude, open feelings and elegant culture.The conclusion part firstly summarizes and reviews the characteristics of French patriotism systematically, which includes five main points—the characteristic of nature, the characteristic of culture, the characteristic of native land, the characteristic of separation and the characteristic of republicanism. In the meanwhile, this part also reflects on these issues of the discourse system, the formation elements, the inheritance of French patriotism. In addition, this part also deeply analysed the limit of Frecnch patriotism. Secondly, the study explores what Chinese patriotism should respond in the new historical period reference to France. Standing at the new historical starting point, the patriotism should advance with the times, should run through the national education, should be supported by the internet, should be used to integrate various ethnic group. Finally, the paper makes a brief discussion of the deficiencies in study and directions for future research.