Dismantling a world
France's monumental military heritage in Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Algeria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3978776 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Slyomovic, Susan Slyomovics (Departments of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 772-796 |
| Publication date | 2020-09-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of North African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1362-9387 • E-ISSN: 1743-9345 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13629387.2019.1644901 |
| OpenAlex | W2968529810 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 23 |
The history of France's war memorials is a much-studied domain of scholarly inquiry. According to historian Antoine Prost, constructing monuments on a grand scale to commemorate wars was a response to the staggering number of 1,300,000 French dead in World War I. Among those who fought for France in 1914–18 were 343,000 conscripted and mobilised Algerians divided according to colonial categories between French citizens and indigènes, the latter drafted as French subjects. So widespread was the 'cult of the monument' that the term 'statuomania' was coined by historian Maurice Agulhon to account for 36,000 war memorials erected in the interwar period throughout France and its overseas territories, especially in Algeria, which was integrated as France's southernmost province. The significance of French colonists implanting statues was well understood by the native Algerian population who linked a colonial Algeria known for a plethora of monuments to the visible and materialised expressions of colonial power and occupation. Analysing how the formerly colonised of Algeria address the enduring material presence of statues, steles, monuments, and other effigies of the colonial past, this essay draws on concepts such as 'dark heritage' and 'difficult heritage'. My case study is the town of Sidi-Bel-Abbès, headquarters and cradle of the French Foreign Legion until 1962 and the different fates of its two war memorials after Algeria's 1962 independence from France
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Cult · Ethnology · Humanities · Independence (probability theory · Population · Sociology · War of independence · Demography · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · North African History and Literature · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Representation or Recuperation? The French Colonies and 1914–1918 War Memorials
Curating Difficult Knowledge
The Work of the Dead
Creating National Heroes
Les officiers du Génie et le dessin de villes en Algérie (1830-1870)
Algeria revisited history, culture and identity
Colonial/postcolonial intersections
Sidi-bel-Abbès
The Art of Decolonization
Vestiges of the Colonial Empire in France
Monument Wars
Making Algeria French and Unmaking French Algeria
Une autre « Union Sacrée » ? Commémorer la Grande Guerre dans l'Algérie colonisée (1918-1939)
La production de l'espace
Fête et ordre colonial
Reclaiming the city
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |