Η παθογένεια των νόμων της ιστορικής μνήμης στη Γαλλία
Part of : Μνήμων ; Vol.30, 2009, pages 285-314
Issue:
Pages:
285-314
Parallel Title:
The Pathogenicity of Memory Laws in France
Section Title:
Προσεγγίσεις/Approaches
Author:
Abstract:
In recent decades, historiography and historical culture worldwide have enteredin a phase of juridical re-examination of traumatic and controversial historicalevents. This re-examination attributes responsibility to states or to some of theirofficials for heinous crimes against specific social, political, ethnic, religious orracial groups (ethnic cleansings, genocides, slave trade). The French case is themost representative of this trend: since the early 1990s, the phenomenon of thehistorical memory’s judicialization is reflected in the adoption by the FrenchParliament of a series of laws (lois mémorielles) relating to traumatic and controversial historical events. Following such an approach, the evaluation of thepast becomes a state responsibility, and the valuation of history lies solely inthe jurisdiction of national courts. This "mnemonic hysteria" is intercepted from2005 onwards thanks to the coordinated mobilization of historians, Frenchintelligentsia and the majority of public opinion who defended the necessity ofthe autonomy of historical research against manipulation and ideological interpretations of the past.
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Subject (LC):
