Archives, monuments, celebrations:there are not merely the
recollections of memory but also the foundations of history.
Symbols, the third and final volume in Pierre Nora's monumental
Realms of Memory, includes groundbreaking discussions of the
emblems of France's past by some of the nation's most distinguished
intellectuals. The seventeen essays in this book consider such
diverse "sites" of memory as the figures of Joan D'Arc and
Decartes, the national motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity",
the tricolor flag and the French language itself. Pierre Nora's
closing essay on commemoration provides a culminating overview of
the series. Offering a new approach on history, culture, French
studies and the studies of symbols, Realms of Memory reveals how
the myriad meanings we attach to places and events constitute our
sense of history. A monumental collective endevour by some of
France's most distinguished intellectuals, Realms of Memory
explores how and why certain places, events, and figures became a
part of France's collective memory, and reveals the intricate
connection between memory and history. Symbols, the third and final
volume, is the culmination of the work begun in Conflicts and
Divisions and Traditions.Pierre Nora inaugurates this final volume
by acknowledging that the whole project of Realms of Memory is
oriented around symbols, claiming "only a symbolic history can
restore to France the unity and dynamism not recognized by either
the man in the street or the academic historian." He goes on to
distinguish between two very different types of symbols - imposed
and constructed. Imposed symbols may be official state emblems like
the tricolor flag or 'La Marsaillaise', or may be monuments like
the Eiffel Tower - symbols imbued with a sense of history.
COnstructes symbols are produced over the passage of time, by human
effort, and by history itself.They include figures such as Joan
d'Arc, Descartes, and the Gallic cock.Past I, Emblems, traces the
development of four major national symbols from the time of the
Revolution: the tricolor flag, the national anthem (La
Marsaillaise), the motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" and
Bastille Day. Far from having fixed identities, these
representations of the French nations are shown to have undergone
transformations. As French republics rose and regimes changed, the
emblems of the French state - and the meanings accosiated with them
- were also altered.Part II, Major Sites, focuses on those cities
and structures that act as beacons of France to both Frenchman and
foreigner. These essays range from the prehistory paintings in
Lascaux - that cave which, though not originally French in any
sense, has become the very symbol of France's immemorial national
memory - to Verdun, the site of the terrible World War I battle,
now a symbol of the nation's heaviest sacrifice for the "salvation
of the fatehrland" and the most powerful image of French national
unity.Identifications, the final section, explores the ways in
which the French think of themselves. From the cock - that "rustic
and quintessentially Gallic bird" - to the figures of Joan of Arc
and Descartes, to the nation's twin hearts - Paris and the French
language - the memory of the French people is explored.This final
installment of Realms of Memory provides a major contribution not
only to study the French nation and culture, but also to the study
of symbols as cultural phenomena, offering, as Nora observes, "the
possibility of revelation."
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