Mémoire et silence autour de la guerre d`Algérie

University of New Mexico
UNM Digital Repository
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Mémoire et silence autour de la guerre d’Algérie
Romain Chadaigne
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Romain Chadaigne
Candidate
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Department
This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication:
Approved by the Thesis Committee:
Rajeshwari Vallury, Chairperson
Walter Putnam
Stephen Bishop
i

MÉMOIRE ET SILENCE AUTOUR DE LA GUERRE
D'ALGÉRIE
by
ROMAIN CHADAIGNE
PREVIOUS DEGREES
BACHELORS IN ENGLISH CIVILIZATION AND
LITERATURE
MASTERS IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
French
The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
May 2013
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I heartily acknowledge Raji, my thesis advisor and chair of my committee, for her support,
generosity and invaluable advice. I also wish to thank Walter and Steve, the other members of the
committee, for their ideas, comments and feedback.
iii

MÉMOIRE ET SILENCE AUTOUR DE LA GUERRE D’ALGÉRIE
by
Romain Chadaigne
Bachelors, English Civilization and Literature, Université Rennes 2, 2007
Masters, English and American Studies, Université Rennes 2 / University of New Mexico, 2011
Master of Arts, French, University of new Mexico, 2013
ABSTRACT
The Algerian War has been surrounded with historical amnesia, which the figure of Charles de
Gaulle perpetuated by the creation of a national myth that included the concepts of “a civilizing
mission” and the need to revive its “glorious past.” The question of torture during that period
proved discordant with the republican ideals of France and the construction of the myth, thus
awkwardly moving the country back and forth between silence and commemoration. The official
line of the state, mostly motivated by silence, excluded accounts of torture and resulted in a
postcolonial conflict between fragmented memories and a monolithic vision of history, making the
Algerian War a very contemporary debate despite a gap of fifty years.
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