University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 2011 An End to the “Vichy/Algeria Syndrome”?: Negotiating Traumatic Pasts in the French Republic Justin W. Silvestri University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Part of the African History Commons, Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, and the Politics and Social Change Commons Silvestri, Justin W., "An End to the “Vichy/Algeria Syndrome”?: Negotiating Traumatic Pasts in the French Republic" (2011). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 546. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/546 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN END TO THE “VICHY/ALGERIA SYNDROME”?: NEGOTIATING TRAUMATIC PASTS IN THE FRENCH REPUBLIC A Thesis Presented by JUSTIN W. SILVESTRI Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS February 2011 History © Copyright by Justin W. Silvestri 2011 All Rights Reserved AN END TO THE “VICHY/ALGERIA SYNDROME”?: NEGOTIATING TRAUMATIC PASTS IN THE FRENCH REPUBLIC A Thesis Presented By JUSTIN W. SILVESTRI Approved as to style and content by: _________________________________________________ Jennifer N. Heuer, Chair _________________________________________________ Jon B. Olsen, Member _________________________________________________ Dianne Sears, Member __________________________________________ Joye Bowman, Department Head History Department To my family, both here and across the sea ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to those who contributed to this thesis and provided vital intellectual and moral support. Above all, I would like to thank Professor Jennifer Ngaire Heuer for the steady guidance that she provided throughout this project’s development. Her insightful direction, attention to detail, and welcomed assumption of the role of taskmaster helped to keep this project on track, particularly in those moments where I felt overwhelmed by the thesis’s ambitious scope. Gratitude should also be extended to Professor Jon Berndt Olsen and his course on Comparative Memory during the aftermath of World War II. Professor Without this stimulating experience, I would not have explored this body of scholarship or have produced the core content that would later be heart of this thesis. Many other academic advisors must be recognized. Professor Dianne Sears’ advisory role in this project gave me an open ear and a fresh perspective outside of my discipline. I would furthermore like to thank Professors Neil Shipley, Jay Winter, and James Young for their attention and advice. Of course, academic advisors alone do not make the production of any scholarly work possible. Critical input and emotional support came from a warm and loving community of family and friends. I’d like to thank my parents for their love and support. Their kind criticism of my subject’s relevance forced me to keep a watchful eye on the thesis’s coherency. I would also like to express my love and gratitude to Randi, whose loving attention, guidance, and admirable patience made this thesis much easier to complete. All my thanks to the numerous ranks of friends and family who supported this endeavor v ABSTRACT REMEMBERING THE FRENCH REPUBLIC: REFLECTIONS ON MEMORY, HISTORY AND REPUBLICANISM IN FRANCE FEBRUARY 2011 M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jennifer N. Heuer. Within the past few years, France has exhibited a changing relationship in regards to its traumatic memory of its collaborationist and colonial past. The controversies of the loi du 23 février 2005 and the 2007 Guy Môquet Commemoration displayed a new openness to discuss and evaluate traumatic pasts associated with these two public acts. Public debate during the two controversies focused on the difficult process of how to incorporate these traumatic events into the national narrative. Furthermore, this process of negotiation has opened up a vibrant discussion over what parties in France possess the authority and the right to construct the nation’s history. Medical metaphors of neurosis and repression no longer appear to fit French practices of commemoration and remembrance. The Fifth Republic’s legislative effort to dictate the content and character of France’s past encountered significant resistance from a number of historians and educators. These scholars criticized the inappropriate character of the French State’s involvement in the writing of history. While they stood opposed to the State’s methods, French historians and scholars came to frame their resistance to legislated history as evidence of their loyalty to republican ideals, namely those of scientific inquiry and laïcité . They too desired the creation of a shared national history, yet insisted that this vi history could only be formed by respecting the presence of multiple narratives. Other scholars voiced their reservations that the restoration of traumatic narratives might further social breakdown. Interestingly, historians expressed little concern for the role of the general public in the writing of history and, at times, revealed a distinct apathy or active mistrust of the public’s capacity to think historically. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... 1 A. A Shrug And Silence: My First Encounter With Contested French Memory ...................... 1 B. A Guerre mémorielle franco-française ? .............................................................2 2. MEMORY, HISTORY, AND EDUCATION: A REPUBLICAN TRINITY.....................8 A. Defining Memory and Its Relationship to History .............................................8 B. Collective Memory and the Birth of the Modern Nation-State........................11 C. Inventing a Republican France and National Past............................................17 D. The Collapse of a Republican Past?................................................................ 21 E. Lois Mémorielles : the Rise of the Legislated Past............................................28 3. THE LOI DU 23 FÉVRIER 2005 AND OPPOSITION TO LEGISLATED HISTORY………………………………………………………………………………..32 A. The Loi du 23 février 2005: A Panacea for Harkis and Pieds- Noirs Suffering?...............................................................................................................32 B. Historians and Educators React Against Legislated History.............................42 C. The National Assembly is Forced to Reconsider the loi du 23 février 2005 .....52 D. Imposing Silence: Resorting to Constitutional Annulment...............................58 4. THE GUY MÔQUET COMMEMORATION ...............................................................62 A. Politics, Hysteria, and Nicolas Sarkozy’s histoire bling-bling.......................... 63 B. Nicolas Sarkozy’s Election and the Origin of the Môquet Commemoration....69 C. Grudging Acceptance and Scholarly Ire: Initial Reactions to the Commemoration ....................................................................................................72 D. The Commemoration Appears to Fall Apart .....................................................81 E. Why the Controversy? ...................................................................................... 84 5. AN (OVER?)ABUNDANCE OF MEMORY?..............................................................86 viii A. Neurosis and French Memory: A Satisfying Conceptual Model? ................... 86 B. Demanding Rationality: French Historians’ Discomfort With Memory...........91 6. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................99 APPENDICES A.THE TRANSLATED ORIGINAL LOI DU FÉVRIER 2005............................ 101 B. GUY MÔQUET’S TRANSLATED LETTER.................................................107 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................108 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. A Shrug And Silence: My First Encounter With Contested French Memory From 2007 to 2008, I spent my time teaching at the lycée Évariste Galois in Sartrouville under the auspices of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. I had been at the school only a few weeks before I encountered an unsettling scene in teacher’s faculty lounge. I remember the agitated buzz that permeated the room and being taken aback by the unusual tension that permeated a space that normally exuded relaxation, relief, and fatigue. I made my way to the vending machine and, as I keyed in my order, my eyes drifted to a piece of paper that had been taped to the front of a nearby machine. This letter urged the faculty to refuse participation in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s planned reading of the letter written by Guy Môquet to French students and to protest this intolerable