Taken together, the reputations which emerged in Francophone popular culture around a series of distinguished explorers, missionaries, empire builders or colonial administrators can be described as a site of collective memory, cementing... more
Taken together, the reputations which emerged in Francophone popular culture around a series of distinguished explorers, missionaries, empire builders or colonial administrators can be described as a site of collective memory, cementing in part the French ‘imagined community’ and sometimes spearheading cultural bridges within the French-speaking world in the postcolonial period. Turned into heroic figures endowed with national significance at the time of the ‘New Imperialism’ of the late nineteenth-century, through an elaborate process which involved the agency of a variety of hero-makers (and sometimes the heroes themselves) and the use of the newly-developed mass-media, the names of Lavigerie, Garnier, Brazza, Marchand, Lyautey, Foucauld and the like became sites of memory, both physically (through street or institution naming, statues, etc.) and culturally (through books, representations in the press and later in films, as well their place in the pantheon of school textbooks). Through colonial heroes, an unusual map of (post-)colonial France and the Francophone world emerges, which is much more complex than has been previously acknowledged, especially in the light of the interest of some post-independence African rulers in the colonial conquerors who gave birth to the modern states that they run.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Taken together, the reputations which emerged in Francophone popular culture around a series of distinguished explorers, missionaries, empire builders or colonial administrators can be described as a site of collective memory, cementing... more
Taken together, the reputations which emerged in Francophone popular culture around a series of distinguished explorers, missionaries, empire builders or colonial administrators can be described as a site of collective memory, cementing in part the French ‘imagined community’ and sometimes spearheading cultural bridges within the French-speaking world in the postcolonial period. Turned into heroic figures endowed with national significance at the time of the ‘New Imperialism’ of the late nineteenth-century, through an elaborate process which involved the agency of a variety of hero-makers (and sometimes the heroes themselves) and the use of the newly-developed mass-media, the names of Lavigerie, Garnier, Brazza, Marchand, Lyautey, Foucauld and the like became sites of memory, both physically (through street or institution naming, statues, etc.) and culturally (through books, representations in the press and later in films, as well their place in the pantheon of school textbooks). Th...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Can a genealogy be established between Britannia (Thomas Arne composed Rule Britannia in 1740) and Brexit? Whilst the concept of Empire 2.0 has often been used to engage with the range of reasons put forward by Brexiteers to support the... more
Can a genealogy be established between Britannia (Thomas Arne composed Rule Britannia in 1740) and Brexit? Whilst the concept of Empire 2.0 has often been used to engage with the range of reasons put forward by Brexiteers to support the principle of a breakaway from the EU, commentators have often neglected the long-term ramifications of the feelings that may have played a role in the choice of 52% of the British population in the summer of 2016. Yet, a longue duree approach reveals compelling continuities over several centuries. Historiographical developments since the 1980s have pointed towards the persisting influence of the imperial experience on the DNA of British culture and politics. This was reflected in a range of cultural manifestations reaching large constituencies of the population of the British Isles—what John MacKenzie has termed ‘Popular Imperialism’. This paper explores the hypothesis that this deeply rooted attachment to the Empire has been running consistently (although at varying degrees) at least since the eighteenth century, and has found a new lease of life among supporters of the Brexit process, who have celebrated often implicitly the strength of the imperial legacy as a suitable alternative to the EU project. Spanning three centuries of British cultural history, this paper offers a provocative insight into the long-term dynamics that have made the unthinkable possible: that one of the leading proponents of post-war European cooperation and free trade, would decide one day to turn its back to the ideals it had actively promoted—for instance, as a founding member of the Council of Europe.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter draws on recent oral history research undertaken in the homes of former colonial civil servants to consider the relationship between objects and the formation and narration of memories of colonial service. It combines oral... more
This chapter draws on recent oral history research undertaken in the homes of former colonial civil servants to consider the relationship between objects and the formation and narration of memories of colonial service. It combines oral history and material culture approaches to consider how former colonial officials who served in the latter years of empire and decolonisation remember and memorialise colonial encounters within their contemporary homes. Described by Anthony Kirk-Greene as the ‘ultimate diaspora’ of decolonization, the 25,000 plus colonial officials who returned to Britain at the end of empire brought with them a vast array of items from former colonial territories. Many of these diverse objects remain present in contemporary homes and still act as tangible, quotidian reminders of past lives and encounters. Within the retrospective narratives of many former officials, mostly now in their 80s and 90s, a sense of nostalgia is pervasive; however, this often goes beyond an uncomplicated lament for lost status and privilege to reveal much about the impact of lifecycle and affective entanglements in shaping postcolonial narratives of empire. In this chapter, we will explore questions of memory, nostalgia and domestic display through a series of interviews with former colonial officials and their spouses about objects brought ‘home’ from empire. It considers how this group remembers the dislocations of decolonisation and have incorporated memories of imperial service into their post-colonial domestic lives. The idiosyncratic curation of domestic space reveals how objects can present personal narratives and memories of places and individuals encountered during careers in empire, but also become habituated into quotidian twenty-first century life. Objects frequently play a key role in mediating these memories and supporting highly selective accounts of the end of empire, but they also provide a means to interrogate these narratives more rigorously. Exploring the meanings of objects as markers of memory, this paper charts the confluence of material culture, memory and autobiography in shaping post-colonial narratives of empire amongst former officials
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
How were imperial heroes ‘made’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and what made these New Imperialist ‘heroic reputations’ different from those of their predecessors? These are the two questions at the heart of Berny... more
How were imperial heroes ‘made’ in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and what made these New Imperialist ‘heroic reputations’ different from those of their predecessors? These are the two questions at the heart of Berny Sèbe’s monograph, which is part of the long-standing Studies in Imperialism series published by Manchester University Press.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Volume 42, Issue 5, 2014 . The heroes of the British and French empires stood at the vanguard of the vibrant cultures of imperialism that emerged in Europe in the second half of the... more
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Volume 42, Issue 5, 2014 . The heroes of the British and French empires stood at the vanguard of the vibrant cultures of imperialism that emerged in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. Yet imperial heroes did not disappear after 1945 as British and French flags were lowered around the world. On the contrary, their reputations underwent a variety of metamorphoses in both the former metropoles and the former colonies. The introduction to this special issue of the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History presents an overview of the changing history and historiography of imperial heroes half a century after the end of empire.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... 17 III Postcolonial Enlightenment(s) 22 Part One: Subjects and Sovereignty 1. Hobbes and America ... Ahmed I Precolonial and early colonial Orientalism 176 II Jones and mythic law 184 III ... in India tentatively entitled The... more
... 17 III Postcolonial Enlightenment(s) 22 Part One: Subjects and Sovereignty 1. Hobbes and America ... Ahmed I Precolonial and early colonial Orientalism 176 II Jones and mythic law 184 III ... in India tentatively entitled The Stillbirth of Capital: Enlightenment Form and Colonial India. ...