CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Phillips, Sarah May |
|---|---|
| Title | Agonistic Memory in France's Cite Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration |
| Summary | This piece of research situates itself within a significant and timely intersection made between memory and migration, and thus takes issue with the presumed interdependence of the memory community and the nation state in today’s multicultural and globalized society. I begin by reflecting on what I see as problematic in privileging a sense of placement, settlement or consensus of memory by addressing the added purchase of agonism, a political theory that acknowledges the conflictual nature of social life and emphasizes the potentially positive aspects of certain discords. Taking up a case study of France’s immigration museum La Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration, my project reflects on how the memory of migration and colonialism in France need not privilege the rigid boundaries of the nation state, and as such reconsiders existing debates on migration museums deemed homogenizing, harmonizing or re-affirming the nation. As such, my final research question is in exploratory one; inquiring as to what paradigm drives this institution. This will be substantiated by addressing different considerations of ritual which I feel are relevant and suggestive through engagement with the appropriation of agonism, and the museum case at hand; most notably in respect to mimicry and satire. Analyzing the exhibitory material, conducting interviews and reflecting on the debates surrounding the institution, my considerations will lead me to argue that the pattern unearthed in the CNHI is not one of rearticulating a national master narrative through incorporation of migration, but one of critical reflection, discussion and plurality; of agonism. |
| Supervisor | Fetzer, Thomas |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/phillips_sarah.pdf |
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