Directors: Dominique Kalifa, Sébastien Le Pajolec, Myriam Tsikounas
Participating members: Anne-Elisabeth Andréassian, Laurent Bihl, Guillaume Mazeau, Isabelle-Rabault-Mazières
This area falls within the historiographic tradition of the history of representations inaugurated on this team by the pioneering work of Maurice Agulhon and Alain Corbin, continued by Dominique Kalifa, and expanded after 2007 with the creation of the ISOR unit.
- Representations and social imaginaries
This "historical" theme of the Center ‒ which continues to attract a substantial number of masters and doctoral candidates, as well as many researchers from foreign countries ‒ is set to continue during the next contract period, while refocusing its activities on some new subjects. The history of periodical representations, which was put on hold after the 2011 publication of the collective reference work La Civilisation du Journal. Histoire culturelle et littéraire de la presse française au XIXe siècle (D. Kalifa et al. Paris, Nouveau Monde, 1700 pp), will return to the forefront in collaboration with the Numapresse project, with ANR funding (50,760€) applied for and obtained by Marie-Ève Thérenty (Montpellier 3). The Center will be charged with the study of the "weekly" format, its evolution in the first half of the 20th century, and the new rhythms and scansions it generated. This research is even more important in that it intersects with the major study on the divisions, uses, and imaginaries of time developed by Dominique Kalifa in his program at the University Institute of France. This reflection on the weekly format and uses of time ties in with the historical analysis of other divisions and denominations of time (chrononyms) and their influence on the writing of history, which constitutes another major line of inquiry in this area. The upcoming workshop series will result in the publication of a collective work entitled Dénommer l'Histoire: essais sur les noms du temps, which will appear around 2021 as part of the Bibliothèque des histoires collection (Gallimard). Another aspect of this work is a project to foster the use of the vast trove of 8,000 illustrated postcards from World War I digitized by the Center, which has obtained a "Scientific Policy" contract ("Cultural Anthropology of the War Postcard") in partnership with the IDHES. In addition to presenting this exceptional collection in a database and a virtual exhibition, this project (with 20,000€ in financing from the University of Paris 1 and support from the Sorbonne Interuniversity Library) seeks to offer an authoritative historical investigation of this important medium previously neglected by historiography, thus expanding on the work done during earlier contract periods on other forgotten media such as commemorative plates or Scopitone films.
- Social imaginaries and written histories
This is a continuation of the research performed by the ISOR group, with a change of title to reflect the essential role of social imaginaries in the team's work and to include the often-neglected study of sound. As revealed by the term "audiovisual," sound and visual images are indivisible, and the archeology of the soundscape constitutes an essential factor in the history of sensibilities. The term "image" continues to be widely understood in the sense of "picture" and "representation," ranging from mental images to physical images, whether fixed or moving, and from synthetic images to analog images ‒ i.e. from literary descriptions to television programs, via caricature, comic strips, painting, photography, and film. As with the earlier research done on the work of Patrice Chéreau, this will be a comparative analysis. The emphasis will be on three closely related fields of inquiry:
1. Archives:
A reflection on the writing of history through visual and sound images would be incomplete without an inquiry into the specificity of these audiovisual archives. The ways in which archives are stored, preserved, categorized, promoted, and consulted influence the perception of history told through images. A bimonthly workshop, hosted by Géraldine Poels (INA) and Myriam Tsikounas, will be organized with the managers of the image banks of the CNC, ECPAD, SHD, Inathèque, the Archives Nationales, and the Forum des Images in order to examine the logic behind the construction of the leading visual and sound archive facilities, the limits of the available documentation tools, the problems posed by technologies for reproduction on media subject to obsolescence, and the reuse of archival images by documentarians and filmmakers relying on historical consultants, whose role will be discussed.
2. The visual writing of history:
In a context of increasing interest in all non-academic forms of historical writing and debates examining the porosity between fiction and reality, a reflection on the limits and risks of visual history seems essential. This inquiry will be devoted to analyzing how film and television directors, as well as theater directors, write history within the constraints specific to each of these media. The Notebooks of René Allio, published by Annette Guillaumin and Myriam Tsikounas, or Patrice Chéreau's Notes de travail, currently being edited by Julien Centrès for Actes Sud through 2020, are good examples. The historical sensibility of these producers, their recourse to historians, and their role as transmitters of history will be analyzed. We will also explore the relationship of historical fiction to historical "truth," its construction of the times, the characters, and the society depicted, and the way in which historians have reacted to the contributions of these audiovisual and pictorial sources. A detailed study of the leading historical journals will enables us evaluate the academic reception of these works.
3. The transmission of history on the radio and the small screen:
The popularization of history has grown increasingly prevalent in French radio and television. Since the end of the 1920s, producers of radio dramas have drawn inspiration from historic events, which they fictionalize or reconstruct. From the middle of the 1940s, radio talk shows have shown a willingness to offer listeners access to the knowledge of experts in the social sciences. The first history-themed radio program, La Tribune de l'histoire, went on the air in 1951, followed in 1956 by the fictional TV show La Caméra explore le temps. Since then, nearly every radio and television format has been used to talk about history, from soap operas to dramas, from archival montages to the discussion of written works. Some of these programs, like Histoire parallèle (630 episodes on La Sept and later, Arte) or Les lundis de l'Histoire (48 seasons on France Culture), were hosted by well-known historians and offered analyses of historic works and historiographic debates. The inquiry will focus on historians' participation in these productions, the evolution of their profiles and the format of the programs on which they appeared, and the periods and types of history preferred. The objective will be to shed light on all of the interactions that make up this complex subject and to trace its genetic archeology. In addition to the in-depth study of audiovisual archives, this work will also rely on written sources that make it possible to reconstruct the content of unpreserved productions, and to evaluate the distribution and reception of these programs. Masters candidates in History and Audiovisual Studies will be actively involved in this project. Normal 0 21 false false false FR X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tableau Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}