‘I am a Punk, I Don’t Give a Damn!’ Chez Narcisse: A Rural Place of Resistance

Abstract

Chez Narcisse is a bar located on the threshold of the southern Vosges, in the east of France, that has been run by the same family for over 120 years. Its particularity lies in the fact that since the mid 1980s, it has included a concert hall in the garden behind the bar, which punk bands use to play. This place brings together a bar that is anchored in the daily life of the village and these festive events, which always take place on Sunday evenings. Chez Narcisse thus appears as a ‘double’ space that emphasizes the search for independence and culture in a rural environment. An ethnographic research carried out in this place since January 2017 highlights how the DIY ethos is as much a way of doing things as a purpose. The punk ethos of DIY is claimed by the owners, volunteers, musicians and stakeholders of Chez Narcisse in order to build its identity as an ‘alternative’ place well known in the contemporary French punk scene. By taking up James C. Scott’s work, the aim is to understand how Chez Narcisse is a social site of resistance and the role that DIY plays in it. To do this, I will first present the construction of this alternative place which articulates both a local and rural level and a global one (the concerts and the venue attract punks from all over France). A performance upstage testifies to a veiled but very present resistance, based on a family imaginary. The second part aims at highlighting the daily forms of resistance at Chez Narcisse expressed through the use of DIY. Thus, this place would be less ‘punk’ through programmed music than through the use of DIY as a value to defend and a project to share.