Algeria in France: War and Defeat in Republican Culture The contention of this thesis is that the Algerian war of 1954-62 and Algeria's subsequent independence have had a significant and lasting impact on the nature of French republicanism, and to a much greater extent than the historiography currently recognises. The Algerian war essentially altered the notion of French citizenship in a way which undermined the republican ideals of universalism and assimilation. By reconsidering the war and its aftermath within the broad context of French history since 1789, I argue that the founding of the Fifth Republic was not simply the culmination of French political history; it did not mark the end of the Revolution. Instead, it was itself a revolution and presented a fundamental challenge to republicanism's original ideals of universalism and assimilation. This thesis is a cultural history in the sense that its source material is derived primarily from novels and films, but its conclusions are socio-political. I identify an idiom of republican culture and trace the trends of republican historic and artistic representations of war and defeat. The basis of this study is longitudinal in the sense that it considers themes that have been present through modern French history. The three grandest themes are covered by the three chapters: citizenship, republicanism and the guerre franco-française. By considering these themes in relation to republican cultural representations of the Algerian war, this thesis identifies how the revolution in republicanism has been concealed and the history of the Franco-Algerian relationship has been rejected. This rejection has subsequently allowed the extreme right to control the race and immigration agenda because to challenge it requires a recognition of the revolution which occurred between 1959-1962.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:557468 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Rockett, Suzannah E. |
| Contributors | Baycroft, T. |
| Publisher | University of Sheffield |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2097/ |
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