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Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, Volume 1 - Conflicts and Divisions

Nora

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Description for Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, Volume 1 - Conflicts and Divisions Hardback. Offers the best essays from the acclaimed collection originally published in French. This monumental work examines how and why events and figures become a part of a people's collective memory, how rewriting history can forge new paradigms of cultural identity, and how the meaning attached to an event can become as significant as the event itself. Editor(s): Nora, Pierre; Kritzman, Lawrence D.; Goldhammer, Arthur. Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism. Num Pages: 642 pages, 140 black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: HBAH; HBJD; J. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 183 x 252 x 30. Weight in Grams: 1460. The Construction of the French Past. Conflicts and Divisions. Series: European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism. 642 pages, 140 black & white illustrations. Editor(s): Nora, Pierre; Kritzman, Lawrence D.; Goldhammer, Arthur. Offers the best essays from the acclaimed collection originally published in French. This monumental work examines how and why events and figures become a part of a people's collective memory, how rewriting history can forge new paradigms of cultural identity, and how the meaning attached to an event can become as significant as the event itself. Cateogry: (P) Professional & Vocational. BIC Classification: HBAH; HBJD; J. Dimension: 183 x 252 x 30. Weight: 1352.
Archives, monuments, celebrations:there are not merely the recollections of memory but also the foundations of history. Symbols, the third and final volume in Pierre Nora's monumental Realms of Memory, includes groundbreaking discussions of the emblems of France's past by some of the nation's most distinguished intellectuals. The seventeen essays in this book consider such diverse "sites" of memory as the figures of Joan D'Arc and Decartes, the national motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", the tricolor flag and the French language itself. Pierre Nora's closing essay on commemoration provides a culminating overview of the series. Offering a new approach on history, ... Read moreculture, French studies and the studies of symbols, Realms of Memory reveals how the myriad meanings we attach to places and events constitute our sense of history. A monumental collective endevour by some of France's most distinguished intellectuals, Realms of Memory explores how and why certain places, events, and figures became a part of France's collective memory, and reveals the intricate connection between memory and history. Symbols, the third and final volume, is the culmination of the work begun in Conflicts and Divisions and Traditions.Pierre Nora inaugurates this final volume by acknowledging that the whole project of Realms of Memory is oriented around symbols, claiming "only a symbolic history can restore to France the unity and dynamism not recognized by either the man in the street or the academic historian." He goes on to distinguish between two very different types of symbols - imposed and constructed. Imposed symbols may be official state emblems like the tricolor flag or 'La Marsaillaise', or may be monuments like the Eiffel Tower - symbols imbued with a sense of history. COnstructes symbols are produced over the passage of time, by human effort, and by history itself.They include figures such as Joan d'Arc, Descartes, and the Gallic cock.Past I, Emblems, traces the development of four major national symbols from the time of the Revolution: the tricolor flag, the national anthem (La Marsaillaise), the motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" and Bastille Day. Far from having fixed identities, these representations of the French nations are shown to have undergone transformations. As French republics rose and regimes changed, the emblems of the French state - and the meanings accosiated with them - were also altered.Part II, Major Sites, focuses on those cities and structures that act as beacons of France to both Frenchman and foreigner. These essays range from the prehistory paintings in Lascaux - that cave which, though not originally French in any sense, has become the very symbol of France's immemorial national memory - to Verdun, the site of the terrible World War I battle, now a symbol of the nation's heaviest sacrifice for the "salvation of the fatehrland" and the most powerful image of French national unity.Identifications, the final section, explores the ways in which the French think of themselves. From the cock - that "rustic and quintessentially Gallic bird" - to the figures of Joan of Arc and Descartes, to the nation's twin hearts - Paris and the French language - the memory of the French people is explored.This final installment of Realms of Memory provides a major contribution not only to study the French nation and culture, but also to the study of symbols as cultural phenomena, offering, as Nora observes, "the possibility of revelation." Show Less

Product Details

Format

Hardback

Publication date

1996

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Number of pages

642

Condition

New

Series

European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism

Number of Pages

642

Place of Publication

New York, United States

ISBN

9780231084048

SKU

V9780231084048

Shipping Time

Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days

Ref

99-1

About Nora

Lawrence Kritzman is the Pat and John Rosenwald Research Professor in the Arts and Sciences and professor of French and comparative literature at Dartmouth. He is the series editor of our European Perspectives series and the editor of Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984, by Michel Foucault (Routledge, 1990). His publications include: The Rhetoric of Sexuality and the ... Read more

Reviews for Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, Volume 1 - Conflicts and Divisions

This is an indispensable guide to understanding France and the French. As usual, Arthur Goldhammer's translation is superb. Foreign Affairs This unusual book deals fascinatingly with everything from the creation of the rousing anthem "La Marseillaise" to the changing role of Joan of Arc in France's collective memory. Even the Eiffel Tower shines forth in surprising new facets. Chicago Tribune ... Read more

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Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, Volume 1 - Conflicts and Divisions

Nora

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