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French Cultural Studies, Vol. 17, No. 3, 269-284 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0957155806068092

The French Foreign Legion

Forging Transnational Identities and Meanings

Nicola J. Cooper

University of Bristol

An analysis of the ways in which national or ethnic identities are transformed and a new common identity is forged amongst legionnaires intersects with key factors which have been perennially important to the discussion of transnational communities: the very creation of that sense of community, the importance of a shared history and heritage, the transmission of a cultural memory. Different versions of the legionnaire ‘myth’ in popular culture show how the image of the Legion readily adapts to culturally and historically specific milieux, thereby translating across national borders. Thus although it might be argued that the Legion disseminates a certain idea of Frenchness across borders, it also serves as a useful vehicle for other nations’ own mythologies.

Key Words: Beau Geste • colonialism • French Foreign Legion • Morocco • popular culture


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