Un révélateur identitaire: le conflit sur les costumes dans le quadrille corse

Abstract

A conflict on whether scenic costumes should be worn or not among Corsican quadrille dancers reveals a duality in their representations of the Corsican identity: for some of them, it assigned and reduced to a folk expression, for others it adjusts itself to the present-day mutations. Identity is built according to a dual temporality, fitted into two ways to create a bond with the living place. The evolution of the clothing in the 19th century, the emergence of Corsican folk groups during the inter-war period and the soaring of quadrille groups since the 80's show the macro-social pressure inflicted on them and on the identity construction of those committed to it. The creation process of the Corsican quadrille through its learning methods, its locations for practicing and the invention of its figures testifies a dual tension within the dancers’ construction of Corsican identity, beyond their common willingness of differentiating through a territorialized identity hinged on Corsica.