Forgetting the Last Big War

Collective Memory and Liberation Images in an Off-Year Anniversary

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3757281
AutoresSusan Keith (0000-0002-3382-4060, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume56
Fascículo2
Páginas204-222
Data de publicação2012-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764211419356
OpenAlexW2037703429
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas12
Referências citadas27

This article reports the results of a study of coverage of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Paris published in French newspapers, newsmagazines, and online news media in 2009. Building on a previous study of images of the liberation in Parisian newspapers at the 60th anniversary in 2004, it provides empirical evidence for the conventional wisdom that less anniversary journalism is produced in non-decennial than decennial anniversaries. In addition, the article shows that visual coverage of the 65th anniversary of the liberation was even more reductive than coverage of the 60th, concentrating almost exclusively on images of French joy and authority and forgoing more problematic representations of German occupiers, French collaborationists, and U.S. troops. Finally, the article argues that this sparse and reductive view of the liberation of Paris has the potential to affect collective memories of the event as it recedes into the past and the number of living French citizens who remember it firsthand declines

Art history · Cognitive psychology · Forgetting · German · Journalism · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Psychology