<p>Abstract
In the fall of 2005, France experienced the most important series of riots in its recent history. The unrest lasted for three weeks and expanded from the Paris suburbs or ?banlieues? to some three hundred towns in the entire country. However, the expansion effect was the result of forces at play between the rioters, the government, and the media. The ?event? became a spectacle that staged an asymmetrical communication between these three actors, opening a space for ?play.? The riot can be seen as a play in three acts: first; the tragedy in Clichy, the subsequent Paris Suburbs burning, and finally a performance of the absurd, erupting in the provinces. Through the play element, this dissertation explores what the public sphere and the ?paper riot? circled around but did not address fully. The notion of ?jeu? in French translates to play and game in English (in their multiple forms). Thus, this work examines the nature of these forms of play. It reveals the political game as mostly a linguistic one and that of the media as a play on images. In that process, the fusion of politics with the media offered an official version of the riots, a spectacular one. The play of the rioters took shape in the ?contagion? effect that made the riots national. When television channels realized their broadcast of the unrest had a role to play in the spreading of the unrest, they soon realized the irony and the limitations of their role. For the rioters though, play did not oppose the political, but quite the opposite: it equaled resistance for a brief moment. While the majority of the audience understood some of the hardship that the youth in the ?banlieues? experiences on a daily basis, overall it did not understand the rioters? acts, burning cars, gymnasiums and schools in their own neighborhoods. In that sense, the spectacle brought attention on the treatment of visible minorities in France but it failed to decipher their means of expression.
Resume
A l?automne 2005, la France a connu la serie d?emeutes la plus importante de ses banlieues. A l?origine, la mort de deux adolescents de Clichy-sous-Bois poursuivis par la police a declenche trois semaines de violences en region parisienne d?abord, puis en province. Toutefois, la gestion politique des emeutes ainsi que les representations mediatiques des violences ont joue un role dans l?expansion des emeutes et ce qui a fait < l?evenement >. Dans cet entrelacs d?echanges s?est tisse l?espace d?un jeu ephemere qui a mis en scene la communication asymetrique de ses acteurs et le dialogue de sourd qui sevit entre les institutions francaises et la banlieue. Tel un theatre de rue, l?emeute a pris la forme d?une piece en trois actes : la tragedie a Clichy, suivie d?une phase francilienne pour culminer avec une performance de l?absurde en province. Les trois acteurs de l?emeute ont forme le jeu politique, de nature linguistique, le jeu mediatique, un jeu d?images et enfin le jeu des emeutiers. En effet, afin de repondre a un jeu perdu d?avance, les emeutiers ont developpe un jeu dans l?expansion des emeutes a l?echelle nationale. Entre nihilisme et emancipation, entre phase ludique et acte de resistance, le jeu ne s?oppose ni au serieux, ni au politique. Au contraire, cette these demontre la nature politique du jeu. Pourtant, si l?opinion publique a pu reconnaitre l?existence d?un malaise profond vecu et partage par la jeunesse des quartiers, dans l?ensemble elle n?a pas compris et approuve le mode d?expression des emeutiers. Dans ce sens, le spectacle a bien mis en lumiere l?urgence d?une remise en cause du traitement des minorites visibles en France, toutefois il n?a pas su decrypter le mode operatoire des emeutiers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10242965 |
| Date | 02 March 2017 |
| Creators | Bouhet, Elise |
| Publisher | State University of New York at Albany |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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