From Politics to Nostalgia: The Transformation of War Memories in France during the 1960s-1970s

Abstract

This article discusses changes in collective memory of World War Two in France during the 1960s-1970s on the basis of a contextualized discussion of three films, all of which adopt, it is argued, a self-conscious politics of memory. The films are taken as examples of a particular relationship to World War Two that was historically possible in a given political context. As in most of the literature, 'the 1968 years' are taken as a moment of change, but it is argued here that they constituted the end rather than the start of political challenges to collective memory of World War Two. During the 1970s representations of World War Two in cinema as well as public discourse more generally were increasingly historicized and disconnected from contemporary society, and thus de-politicized.

Fires of resistance in Algerian discourse: A genealogy of a trope

“…Yet the post-liberation Gaullist myth of resistance, characterised by Rousso (1990) as Résistancialisme , rapidly ossified into an official screen memory obscuring Vichy France and collaboration. Bracke (2011: 6) points out that this collective memory had to be buttressed further by 1954: ‘At the outbreak of the Algerian War, de Gaulle and the conservative elites were forced to reinforce the myth of Résistancialisme, turning it into a something that resembled a caricature’. She suggests that the Algerian War interfered with established narratives by bringing into question the use of torture as a weapon, and by forcing a confrontation with the devoir d’obéissance / devoir de résistance (Bracke, 2011).…”

“…Bracke (2011: 6) points out that this collective memory had to be buttressed further by 1954: ‘At the outbreak of the Algerian War, de Gaulle and the conservative elites were forced to reinforce the myth of Résistancialisme, turning it into a something that resembled a caricature’. She suggests that the Algerian War interfered with established narratives by bringing into question the use of torture as a weapon, and by forcing a confrontation with the devoir d’obéissance / devoir de résistance (Bracke, 2011). For de Gaulle, the historical ‘flame of resistance’ had to be seen to be burning constantly in France.…”