European war ruins and their uses (19th-21st century)
Les ruines de guerre européennes et leurs usages (XIXe-XXIe siècle)
Published on Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Abstract
Today, the terrible sight of the destruction in Ukraine awakens memories throughout Europe of the war landscapes of earlier conflicts, from the Napoleonic Wars to the war in former Yugoslavia. The aim of the conference is to explore the relationship that post-war societies have with the vestiges of conflict and the marks of war violence. Through the political, social, economic, cultural and memorial uses of these particular vestiges, the relationship with a traumatic past will be explored.
Announcement
Argument
Today, the terrible sight of the destruction in Ukraine awakens memories throughout Europe of the war landscapes of earlier conflicts, from the Napoleonic Wars to the war in former Yugoslavia. Normandy was one of the regions particularly devastated by the Second World War - Caen, Falaise, Saint-Lô, the "capital of ruins" in 1945 - but where the memory of the D-Day landings masked that of the Allied destruction, underlining the fact that the relationship with ruins is variable and historically constructed.
The aim of the conference is to explore the relationship that post-war societies have with the vestiges of conflict and the marks of war violence. Through the political, social, economic, cultural and memorial uses of these particular vestiges, the relationship with a traumatic past will be explored. We hypothesise that the ruins of war do not precede the expression of an internalised trauma, but enable it to be formulated by marking out the ways in which it is expressed.
For four years, the Ruins research programme (ANR 2019) has brought together around twenty researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds in four laboratories, including Histémé at the University of Caen. Although Normandy during the summer of 1944 was a key research area, it was not the only one (others included Oradour-sur-Glane, the Vercors plateau, Lorraine, and the ruins of the First World War in the North). The comparison drawn from the French cases has from the outset endeavoured to establish links with foreign researchers. The aim of the conference is both to present the main results of the Ruins programme and to broaden the debate from a resolutely transnational perspective, as a prelude - we hope - to new research initiatives.
On the one hand, the notion of war ruins, which may seem uncontested, actually needs to be questioned: these ruins have various origins linked to the conditions and circumstances of the destruction, which are themselves linked to the evolution of the forms of warfare. They are remnants of war, but not all remnants of war are necessarily ruins (e.g. blockhouses, military citadels, trenches, mine holes, observation posts, etc.), even if they can become ruins over time.
On the other hand, the ruins of war have similarities with other buildings of the same kind: archaeological ruins, the ruins of natural disasters, the reconstructed ruins of romantic gardens, and so on. The idea is not to naturalise ruins by their size or origin, but to historicise their content by analysing the social uses and practices to which they give rise. Finally, we might consider that ruins are the flip side of reconstruction projects that tend to erase their presence: in fact, reconstructions are strongly determined by ruins and have an ambiguous relationship with them (reuse, conservation, integration of ruins into buildings, etc.). What place and what role are assigned to these traces of the past in post-conflict reconstruction and reorganisation?
Conference topics
The conference is divided into 3+1 parts, each of which will focus on the state of the art and research prospects.
- The experience of ruins and destruction
- The uses of war ruins in war and post-war period
- The heritage and tourism of war ruins.
- Actors and current events: A final section will be devoted to the views of actors involved in the various uses of ruinous remains. Specific attention will be paid to the Ukrainian case.
Submisssion guidelines
Proposal (max. 3,000 characters) to be sent before 2 February 2024 to :
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stephane.michonneau@u-pec.fr
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francois.rouquet@unicaen.fr
The conference will take place at the Caen Memorial on 25-26-27 September 2024.
Scientific Advisory Board
Annette Becker (U. Nanterre) Patrizia Dogliani (U. Bologne) Gaël Eismann (Univ. Caen-Normandie) Anne-Marie Granet (U. Grenoble-Alpes) Jérôme Grévy (Univ. de Poitiers) Anne Hertzog (CYU) Gilles Malandain (UVSQ) Denis Mathis (U. Lorraine) Stéphane Michoneau (UPEC) Carolina Rodríguez Pérez (Univ. Complutense de Madrid) François Rouquet (Univ. Caen-Normandie) Danièle Voldman (CNRS)
Subjects
- History (Main category)
- Mind and language > Representation > Heritage
- Zones and regions > Europe
- Society > History > Urban history
- Periods > Modern
- Society > Geography > Geography: society and territory
Places
- Mémorial de Caen - Esplanade D.W. Eisenhower
Caen, France (14)
Event attendance modalities
Hybrid event (on site and online)
Date(s)
- Friday, February 02, 2024
Keywords
- ruine, vestige de guerre, commémoration, usage politique, usage social
Contact(s)
- François Rouquet
courriel : francois [dot] rouquet [at] unicaen [dot] fr
Reference Urls
Information source
- Stéphane Michonneau
courriel : stephane [dot] michonneau [at] u-pec [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« European war ruins and their uses (19th-21st century) », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1cez
