Se souvenir...

Symbols of a national identity

A famous French historian of the Annales school, Marc Bloch, once said this about the process of remembering:

The operation of the memory implies a great spiritual activity; to remember is not to watch passively as a spectator as images heretofore hidden deep within me surface on their own to a more knowable/visible form. It is to actively reconstruct the past.

Another Annales member, Jacques le Goff, traces this reconstruction during the 19th century through a series of phenomena which we often take for granted: museums, which were formerly the collections of an elite; libraries, which provided access to reading materials about the past; monuments, through which we commemorate certain events and people; and photography, which multiplied, democratized and sharpened memory, putting it into the hands of the masses. What are family albums after all, but small monuments to the family?

It is worth considering what things our societies value and choose to commemorate. The US flag and constitution are two highly charged symbols in the United States. And war is a common focal point, either through politics, film, literature or monuments. In France, the focus is elsewhere. There are common symbols:Marianne is a statue found outside many of the public buildings in France. She dates from the French Revolution, as does the coq gaulois. And there are major symbols: Museums, architecture and literature are all very important in France since they preserve a certain sense of history that endures over generations. The French are often satirized for their reputed quick retreat in war, but if your history/identity is in your buildings, you do what you must to preserve them. And it comes out in other ways as subversive literature by French authors. It is remarkable that the French tried and executed a French intellectual following their liberation for 'conspiring with the enemy' (Robert Brasillach). Even after the Franco-Prussian war (1870) when the Paris communards burned their own city, they burned the political buildings as a final defiant statement and couldn’t bring themselves to burn their own cultural heritage (i.e. Notre Dame and the Louvre).

One notable difference between the two countries is their treatment of tragedy: Americans tend to enshrine it while the French prefer to let history erase it. France has had an intimate history with terrorism, mostly as a result of its policies toward its former colony, Algeria. But whereas the French choose to commemorate bombings and attacks with plaques, Americans have historically chosen to honor the dead through permanent memorials and often elaborate ceremonies. Think of how many times the term "heros" was used to describe the various victims of 9/11. There is a conscious effort NOT to forget. The most carefully preserved (and some would argue beautiful) war memorial in France is the American cemetery at Omaha Beach.

Two distinct cultures; two distinct ways of (re)constructing a history and an identity.