Histories and Memories of Revolts and Revolutions in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

National symposium May 03 and 04, 2023

 "Histories and Memories of revolts and revolutions through the prism of the ^20th and ^21st centuries: literary, linguistic and pedagogical aspects and issues".

Sales pitch

"Memory is not merely subjective knowledge or recollection of what has taken place, an emergence of the past in the present; it develops as a bearer of identity affirmation and a claim to recognition." (Benjamin Stora 2021)[1]

Like everything that is reckless and heroic, the revolts of peoples and their revolutions in all their forms will be subjects that humanity will nurture. These events stir our memories and draw on resources such as our History and Memory. Memory, by definition, is knowledge based on traces and survivals in the form of written documents or material cultures, and has the function of recording and transmitting experience.

 Whether we have been actors or witnesses, extras or readers on the stage of revolutions, whether we have said or renounced to say, confirmed or regretted our positions and choices in prose, poetry or art, we can shed some light on the mentality, expression, languages, behaviors, mores and beliefs of our society. As Anne de Mathan (2019. P.9) points out, " History and Memory maintain a certain trade, if only because they aim at the same object, namely that which is past." [2]. That's why, of those moments that shape the world, we wanted to focus on a few, in particular pivotal moments that were the turning point between a before and an after, marking moments of rebellion against the established order, and that upset the course of history on a large or small scale: individual or collective revolts and revolutions.

In this sense, history has never ceased to record the march of peoples towards their ideals, in search of better living conditions, justice, social equality... . Whether peaceful or violent, the revolts and revolutions that have scoured the world are the echo of suffering peoples. In recent decades, their manifestations have increased tenfold as inequalities have deepened. The names used to describe these revolutions are a vivid reminder of the unease and hope that drive them: The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, revolutions in other countries of the Arab world (Syria and Egypt), those experienced in Algeria since the 1980s (Berber Spring), the confrontation of ideas within the Algerian population (1989), the Black Decade (from 1990 onwards), the fight for Tamazight enhanced by its recognition as a national language (2002) and the Hirak of February 22, 2019, are all virtuous and peaceful actions by Algerian society to assert itself.

In this case, and if we are to move towards a "new", calmer Algeria, we need to look back at the various struggles that may have been poorly grasped at the time, or at first glance, in order to take a different, new, more nuanced look at all the other periods we have lived through. Recovering the past and questioning memories will enable us to concern ourselves with the way Algerian society manages its relationship with History, and in our situation to see how imaginary production expresses its evotution and provides elements for understanding the people and its reality, as stipulated by Marc Bloch (2008, p 13): " It is necessary to know the past in order to understand the present, but knowledge of the present also enables us to better understand the past ."[3].

Novels, historical documents (archives), cinema and other literary and artistic productions are the preferred forms for asserting our differences and identity. Their didactic intention is obvious: to raise awareness of the existence of an Algerian personality with its own culture and foundations. In this vein, we offer further justification for the role of fictional productions in illuminating the history and memories of communities, as Christiane Chaulet Achour (2003) points out:

     At a time when history is often falsified or blind because it is still too close and not sufficiently distanced, novelists are all trying, however diverse their choices, to nourish their questioning of history and memory, of the pitfalls of today's society, and of the hopes of a plural and open construction. In this respect, the Algerian novel, like novels the world over, deals with the endless questions that human beings ask themselves about their future. Rather than responding with a discourse of certainties, it writes with symbols and powerful images, inviting us to seek out and accept the heterogeneous .[4]

            The study day we are organizing is an opportunity to present our intellectual productions of what memory has perceived, of what remains in individual or collective subjectivity. In the title of our theme, we have chosen to use the terms "History" and "Memory" in the plural, to show the multiplicity of discourses that construct them. If HISTORY, as Pierre Barbéris (1980) points out[5]is about the course of events, the historical fact, History refers to the practice of the historical discipline and the positions taken in relation to ideologies. It's up to us to make "gestures" to project the image of our universe, and to look at it critically. This gaze can linger on the activity of teaching/learning in the French language and on the regrd that the school textbook carries to inscribe teaching in a pedagogy of the particular, the very one that inscribes History in History, in the diegesis. It would also be interesting to see how language can inscribe a vision of history through epilinguistic discourses, which reflect a subjective vision of history.

It's worth noting that open dialogue on history/history can be of interest to teachers in their teaching/learning of language and culture, as well as to linguists, sociologists, literary scholars, anthropologists, etc. History cannot be the sole preserve of the historian, whose discourse is based on historical facts. The literary can escape into history to the extent that History becomes indiscriminate.

In this way, the lines of research proposed for this colloquium, which may be broadened, may involve several researchers from different academic backgrounds. A confrontation of knowledge and discourse on History/History is expected, with the aim of seeing how the discourse on History is renewed, across eras, approaches, formations, ideologies, etc.

• Focus 1: Teaching history and memories of revolts and revolutions.
• Axis 2: Discourses of/on History and Memories of revolts and revolutions.
• Axis 3: Fictional writings of History and Memories of revolts and revolutions.
• Focus 4: History(ies) and Memory(s) of women's revolts and revolutions.
• Axis 5: History(s) and memory(s) attics and cultural walls.
• Axis 6 : Pedagogical discourse on history.
• Focus 6 : Discourse analysis as a critical approach to history and memory.
• Axis 7 : Renewal of critical approaches to history, integrating semiotics, enunciation, pragmatics, etc.

President of the symposium

Pr ACHI Nacéra, Director of the LRIC laboratory, UMMTO

Chairman of the Scientific Committee

 Pr Boukhelou Fatima and Pr BETOUCHE Aini, UMMTO

President of the Organizing Committee

Pr BETOUCHE Aini, UMMTO

Scientific Committee

Organizing Committee

Responsible for https://www.ummto.dz/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Colloque-national-le-03-et-04-mai-2023.pdfcomitéorganization

Ibri Zohra, PhD student in Discourse Analysis at UMMTO

مديرة المخبر

عشي نصيرة

[1] Benjamin Stora (January 2021), Les questions mémorielles portant sur la colonisation et la guerre d'Algérie.

[2] Anne De Mathan (Dir), 2019,Memoirs of the French Revolution, Rennes PUR.

[3] Jean François Guédon &Hélène Sorez. 208. Citations de culture générale expliquées. Eyrolles. Paris

[4] Christiane Chaulet Achour. 2003. Algérie, états des lieux : politique, société, culture. Recherches internationales n°67/68.

[5] Pierre Barbéris. 1980. The Prince and the merchant. Ideologiques: la littérature, l'histoire. Fayard. Paris.

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