Rugby, Modernity and Controversy: Le P’tit Parigot (1926) by René Le Somptier

Résumé En

The history of sports literature has enjoyed renewed interest over the last fewyears, with a noticeable increase in the number of Anglo-Saxon works and therevival of French research. Through fiction, it is possible to understand theprocesses whereby ideas spread and collective imaginaries are constructed. Inthis regard, this article revisits the history of rugby union through the prism ofa cine-novel, Le P’tit Parigot (1926), which was presented in serialised form viathe newspaper L’Intransigeant and as a six-episode film in cinemas. It depictsthe misfortunes of Georges Grigny-Latour, also known as the ‘P’tit Parigot’,son of an academic and captain of the French rugby union football team. Thissport serial is a historical source of precious and useful information enablingus to address the representations of rugby at the time. The article aims tocharacterise the ambiguous identity of the sport during the Roaring Twenties,an identity that was torn between a Parisian spirit cultivating the idea ofrugby as the inheritance of Anglo-Saxon values, and a provincial vision usingit as a means of territorial expression.