In analyzing the 1989 bicentennial in Paris, my point of departure has been that
the French government, faced with the cool reception to the memory of the
Revolution of 1789, was trying to make revolutionary heritage relevant to
contemporary concerns, by using allegorical techniques of spatializing and
visualizing history while consequently (yet paradoxically, since it ran against
their intentions) effecting a smooth passage for this heritage into the world of
commodity and spectacle. To analyze this dilemma, I investigated the
mechanisms of representation and the tension between spectacle and politically
engaged imagery. Drawing from the work of Water Benjamin, the thesis
proposed to use allegory as a mode of political criticism and redemptive
interpretation. The analysis of the programming of events, for example,
revealed that it contained a moral tale of sacrifice, and praised the power of the
memory of the Revolution to form a community, not based on ethnicity or
shared history but on shared ideals. The analysis of the use of collage in the
Bastille Day Parade revealed that it reworked Republican notions of ‘fraternity
in a post-colonial era to reflect contemporary discussions of métissage and take a
position on its relationship to democracy.
By looking at this commemoration allegorically, the double meanings inscribed
in the bicentennial program, exhibits, monuments and parade can be unpacked.
But the allegorical critique is violent, it does not carefully excavate layers of
meaning through a gentle and constructive hermeneutic circle, it requires that
the objects that are being contemplated be in fragments. As the allegorist
reassembles the fragments into new meaningful constellations, the constructions
remain open, driven by the impossibility of recovering what has been lost,
always pointing to the instability of meaning.
The analysis of the commemoration recognized that commodification and
spectacularisation happen, but through reversal it also showed that the 1989
bicentennial draws from a constantly evolving relationship to memory which
allows for investment on the part of the public. Because the commemoration is
a powerful form of visualizing and spatializing history that occurs in public
spaces, many provocative images were taken up by the press and written about,
which ultimately reconfigured present-day discussions about democracy and
citizenship.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7185 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Bonnemaison, Sarah |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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