CERC Public Seminar: 'Marianne and the Minorities: Diversity and “Decline” in Contemporary France'

Tuesday 23 May 1:00-2:00pm
at Room 212, Level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, The University of Melbourne

presented by

Mr. Ian Coller

(History Department, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

“Declinology” has become the intellectual trend of the moment in France. The rejection of the EU constitution, the violent unrest in the suburbs of French cities, and the recent mass protests in Paris, have provoked a wave of books diagnosing France ’s current malaise. These panoramic and pessimistic views belie France’s vibrant democracy and diversity, reinforcing the sense of embattled Republican virtue among France’s elite. Today, millions of France’s citizens draw upon cultural traditions and histories from outside continental Europe : their wish to conserve these identities alongside their French citizenship is often viewed as a dangerous form of “communitarianism” which threatens the integrity of the Republican model and its four sacred values: liberty, equality, fraternity and, increasingly, laïcité. In this stand-off it is often French history which is at stake, in particular the colonial past. Is it really the French Republic , or only “a certain idea of France” which is in decline?

Biography

Ian Coller teaches in the History Department at the University of Melbourne. He is completing a thesis on the Arab population in Paris in the early nineteenth century, and is beginning a project on the history of cosmopolitanism in Europe and the Middle East.