Author: Emmanuelle Saada / Publishing Institution: Conference Group on French Politics Society

Author:: Emmanuelle Saada
Publication Date:: 06-2004
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Laboratoire de Sciences Sociales À l'origine de ces quelques éléments de réflexion sur les lectures américaines d'Alain Corbin, il y a le souci de percer une énigme et, plus encore, de comprendre un malentendu: ces deux objectifs offrent une belle occasion de saisir les modes sur lesquels sont appropriés les travaux des historiens français et, au-delà, d'éclairer certains points nodaux de l'oeuvre de Corbin. La réception américaine sera donc surtout ici prétexte à une entrée un peu décalée dans l'imposant massif corbinien. Les termes de l'énigme sont bien simples: dans une conjoncture extrêmement difficile pour les presses universitaires aux États-Unis, et plus encore pour la publication de travaux étrangers, presque tous les livres d'Alain Corbin sont traduits en anglais 1, ce dont je crois aucun autre historien français de sa génération ne peut se flatter. Puisque l'on peut raisonnablement penser que les spécialistes de la France lisent ces ouvrages à leur parution, en version originale, la persistance de ce flux depuis 1986 2 semble indiquer l'existence d'un public non francophone, constant et peut-être même fidèle.

Author:: Emmanuelle Saada
Publication Date:: 06-2002
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: My contribution is an attempt to resolve one of those enigmas that the French colonial archives hold for assiduous readers. In the course of comparative research on the juridical status of métis children in the French Empire, I was struck by the frequency with which the terms "dignity" and "prestige" figured in a wide range of colonial preoccupationswhether on the part of local or central administrations, private individuals or institutions. These were not merely personal or social qualities, but terms that had precise legal meanings and that played a central role in colonial jurisprudence. In this context, the terms were predominantly used in the negative-referring to threats to prestige (atteintes au prestige) or to the obligation to maintain one's dignity (garder sa dignité). This runs counter to the conventional image of a self-confident colonial society, persuaded of its superiority and of the legitimacy of its "mission civilisatrice."
Topic:: Law

Author:: Emmanuelle Saada
Publication Date:: 03-2000
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: French Politics, Culture Society
Institution:: Conference Group on French Politics Society
Abstract:: At the time of his death, the sociologist of immigration Abdelmalek Sayad (1933-1998) was putting the final touches on a collection of his principal articles-since published under the title La Double Absence. The publication of this collection provides, I think, a good occasion for introducing Sayad to the anglophone public, which to date has had almost no exposure to his work. In France, Sayad's sociology has been essential not only to the study of Algerian immigration, but to the understanding of migration as a "fait social total," a total social fact, which reveals the anthropological and political foundations of contemporary societies. The introduction of this exceptional work to American specialists of French studies is timely, moreover, because immigration and more recently, colonization have been among the most dynamic areas of research in the field in the past few years.
Political Geography:: America and France

Refine your search