
Colonial Memory and Postcolonial Europe
Maltese Settlers in Algeria and France
Andrea L. Smith(Author)
Indiana University Press
Published on 21. August 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-253-21856-8 (ISBN)
Description
"[I]ntersects with very active areas of research in history and anthropology, and links these domains of inquiry spanning Europe and North Africa in a creative and innovative fashion." -Douglas Holmes, Binghamton University
Maltese settlers in colonial Algeria had never lived in France, but as French citizens were abruptly "repatriated" there after Algerian independence in 1962. In France today, these pieds-noirs are often associated with "Mediterranean" qualities, the persisting tensions surrounding the French-Algerian War, and far-right, anti-immigrant politics. Through their social clubs, they have forged an identity in which Malta, not Algeria, is the unifying ancestral homeland. Andrea L. Smith uses history and ethnography to argue that scholars have failed to account for the effect of colonialism on Europe itself. She explores nostalgia and collective memory; the settlers' liminal position in the colony as subalterns and colonists; and selective forgetting, in which Malta replaces Algeria, the "true" homeland, which is now inaccessible, fraught with guilt and contradiction. The study provides insight into race, ethnicity, and nationalism in Europe as well as cultural context for understanding political trends in contemporary France.
Maltese settlers in colonial Algeria had never lived in France, but as French citizens were abruptly "repatriated" there after Algerian independence in 1962. In France today, these pieds-noirs are often associated with "Mediterranean" qualities, the persisting tensions surrounding the French-Algerian War, and far-right, anti-immigrant politics. Through their social clubs, they have forged an identity in which Malta, not Algeria, is the unifying ancestral homeland. Andrea L. Smith uses history and ethnography to argue that scholars have failed to account for the effect of colonialism on Europe itself. She explores nostalgia and collective memory; the settlers' liminal position in the colony as subalterns and colonists; and selective forgetting, in which Malta replaces Algeria, the "true" homeland, which is now inaccessible, fraught with guilt and contradiction. The study provides insight into race, ethnicity, and nationalism in Europe as well as cultural context for understanding political trends in contemporary France.
Reviews / Votes
"Intersects with very active areas of research in history and anthropology, and links these domains of inquiry spanning Europe and North Africa in a creative and innovative fashion." --Douglas Holmes, Binghamton UniversityMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Bloomington, IN
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
15 b&w photos, 4 maps, 1 index
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
439 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-253-21856-8 (9780253218568)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Andrea L. Smith is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Lafayette College and editor of Europe's Invisible Migrants.
Content
Acknowledgments
1. A Song in Malta
2. Maltese Settler Clubs in France
3. A Hierarchy of Settlers and the Liminal Maltese
4. The Algerian Melting Pot
5. The Ambivalence of Assimilation
6. The French-Algerian War and Its Aftermath
7. Diaspora, Rejection, and Nostalgerie
8. Settler Ethnicity and Identity Politics in Postcolonial France
9. Place, Replaced: Malta as Algeria in the Pied-noir Imagination
Notes
Sources Cited
Index
1. A Song in Malta
2. Maltese Settler Clubs in France
3. A Hierarchy of Settlers and the Liminal Maltese
4. The Algerian Melting Pot
5. The Ambivalence of Assimilation
6. The French-Algerian War and Its Aftermath
7. Diaspora, Rejection, and Nostalgerie
8. Settler Ethnicity and Identity Politics in Postcolonial France
9. Place, Replaced: Malta as Algeria in the Pied-noir Imagination
Notes
Sources Cited
Index