Memory at the front
The period of Occupied France presents a striking example of the failure of memory studies thus far to penetrate certain essential questions in French historiography. Despite its paramount importance, the memory of the French Revolution during the Occupation years has received little serious examination. This article argues that the central revolutionary commemoration of le 14 juillet assumed a critical role during the Occupation. Le 14 juillet was the occasion when Vichy, the collaborationists and the Resistance each chose to glorify, qualify or condemn the Revolution. Their respective selected symbols, words, and ceremonies projected narratives of the proper French past and visions for the postwar future that competed for legitimacy. Each year, this anniversary also served to gauge the French public’s response to the conflicting manipulations of the Revolution’s memory, thereby becoming a vital testing ground for the political direction of the nation. Ultimately, the evolution of the holiday’s meaning during the Occupation period had consequences that reached well into the post-war era.
Surviving Antigone: Anouilh, Adaptation and the Archive
Dr. Cynthia Baron, Advisor The myth of Antigone has been established as a preeminent one in political and philosophical debate. One incarnation of the myth is of particular interest here. Jean Anouilh’s Antigone opened in Paris, 1944. A political and then philosophical debate immediately arose in response to the show. Anouilh’s Antigone remains a well-known play, yet few people know about its controversial history or the significance of its translation into English immediately after the war. It is this history and adaptation of Anouilh’s contested Antigone that defines my inquiry. I intend to reopen interpretive discourse about this play by exploring its origins, its journey, and the archival limitations and motivations controlling its legacy and reception to this day. By creating a space in which multiple readings of this play can exist, I consider adaptation studies and archival theory and practice in the form of theatre history, with a view to dismantle some of the misconceptions this play has experienced for over sixty years. This is an investigation into the survival of Anouilh’s Antigone since its premiere in 1944. I begin with a brief overview of the original performance of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone and the significant political controversy it caused. The second chapter centers on the changing reception of Anouilh’s Antigone beginning with the liberation of Paris to its premiere on the Broadway stage the following year. Additionally, I examine the changes made to Anouilh’s script by Lewis Galantiere and the ramifications of such alterations. In the third chapter, and final part of my examination of Jean Anouilh’s play, I approach Antigone through the lenses of
Memory and Collective Identity in Occitanie: The Cathars in History and Popular Culture
Catharism, or Albigensianism, was a dualist religion which probably originated in the Balkans before appearing in Languedoc, southwestern France, in the first half of the twelfth century. It was a religion founded on the opposition of light and darkness, of God and Satan, of the spiritual and the temporal world. From an orthodox Catholic theological perspective, Catharism was plainly heretical: according to its doctrine, God did not create the temporal world, Christ never took on human form, nor suffered on the Cross, and baptism by water would not bring salvation. The only sacrament practiced by the Cathars was the consolamentum, or baptism of the Holy Spirit. It was the only means of salvation. The Cathar clergy, or Perfects, were those who had already received the consolamentum as part of their ritual of ordination and were already saved. The lay Cathars, or Believers, were required to receive the same sacrament before death in order to be saved too. Much like the Waldensians, the Cathars also rejected ecclesiastical authority in an effort to return to the values of simplicity and abstinence, virtues from which they believed the Roman Church had departed. And because many of the local lords sympathized with the Cathars, the heresy also seemed to pose a threat to the potential establishment of royal power in the region. In 1208 Pierre de Castelnau, a papal legate, was assassinated in the town of Saint-Gilles in Languedoc. His murder was blamed on the Cathars and prompted Pope Innocent III to launch a Crusade against