Un centenaire, des faire mémoire : analyse des pratiques de mémoire autour du Canadien de Montréal
This dissertation explores the heterogeneous practices of memory that emerged during the centennial anniversary of the hockey team Canadien de Montréal in 2009. The dissertation’s goals are twofold: 1) bring a theoretical and a communicational light on the object ‘memory’; 2) produce a contextual analysis of these memory practices and of the issues they render effectives. My dissertation is situated in the fields of memory studies (especially in its current media turn) and cultural studies. In the first chapter dedicated to the ‘problematization’ of the centennial, I explore this event by a communicational approach of memory. This approach aims to interrogate the materiality of the practices of memory and their co‐constitutive relation with media of memory. In the two following analytical chapters, I proceed by analyzing a heterogeneous archive (newspaper articles, websites excerpts, observation notes, interviews, tv shows, etc.) from different registers of memory.The second chapter focuses on the practices of memory regarding the former hockey player Léo Gravelle. I analyze how practices –such as archive digitalization, constitution of a ‘shoebox’,‘biographization’, conservation and ‘fetichization’ –render present some pasts in specific manners. This chapter highlights how familial relations, aging issues and particular forms of friendships are rearticulated through these practices of memory. The third chapter analyses the practices of memory developed by the organization of the Canadien de Montréal. I explore the commemoration and the patrimonialisation of the team. I also focus on the particular ways in which these practices of memory rearticulate the relationships between a professional sport team and the city of Montreal and how they put forward new issues such as philanthropy and consumer activism. The fourth chapter discusses about the implications of ‘doing memory’, which I conceive as a means to ‘space’, as a manner of being involved as well as a project that mobilizes and organizes. I conclude the dissertation by outlining the singular elements which constitute this centennial anniversary.
Hockey Canadien de Montréal Practices of memory Media of memory Centennial Ice hockey Contextual analysis