Rewriting the veteran: gender, geography, generation and the Algerian War

本研究以阿尔及利亚1962年至今的个案研究为例，分析了国家建设、性别和不同世代和地理空间对过去的叙述之间的关系。它不仅关注阿尔及利亚血腥的非殖民化战争中女性退伍军人的国家结构变化，而且还分析了这些“模式”是如何被农村和城市地区的女性退伍军人以及年轻一代所接受、忽视或重写的。因此，这项研究试图在阿尔及利亚国家建设的现有研究中开辟新的方向，这些研究倾向于关注以男性为主的城市，现在正在老龄化的精英在制度化，传播和操纵同质和统一的国家历史中的作用。该项目还旨在提供一个与国家建设研究的比较点，特别是在后殖民国家。此外，该项目在2011年“阿拉伯之春”的背景下具有重要的当代意义，因为它试图提供对阿尔及利亚青年部分（即实习教师）的国家和跨国参考框架的见解。最近的事件突出表明，在英语国家的学术界，这是一个未被充分探索的领域。该项目的主要成果是一本题为《重写老兵：性别、地理、世代和阿尔及利亚战争》的专著。这本专著将借鉴我所进行的广泛的初级研究，包括对农村和城市地区的女退伍军人的采访，对阿尔及尔师范学院历史系学生的案例研究，对法国、阿尔及利亚、英国和美国的档案研究，以及对阿尔及利亚新闻界的广泛研究。在奖学金计划开始之前，有一段相关的机构研究假期，这将使我能够在阿尔及利亚完成有针对性的额外研究（包括对学生态度的进一步研究），并开始写作。因此，该奖项的六个月将专门用于完成专著和传播研究。专著的第一章分析了妇女在阿尔及利亚战争中的角色，既是参与者，也是民族主义和殖民主义宣传的象征。第二章考察了官方历史中女性老兵的演变，特别强调了官方话语、国庆日、纪念仪式、博物馆和纪念碑。第三章分析了女性退伍军人是如何在反话语中被使用的，特别是从20世纪70年代开始，女权主义团体在谴责女性退伍军人的“独立后背叛”时，将这些女性改写为女权主义活动家的原型。它还试图探索这对阿尔及利亚战争中女性的学术写作有何影响。第四章和第五章使用农村和城市的案例研究来探讨退伍军人自己如何讲述他们的过去，出现的网络，传播的形式以及这些女性，她们的故事和主流叙事之间的相互作用。第6章侧重于年轻人对女性退伍军人的看法和更广泛的历史教学，并通过案例研究（2007/2011）展示了在伊斯兰主义、全球化和战争一代人口减少的背景下，退伍军人的表现和战争叙事是如何发生变化的。​

Using a case study of Algeria from 1962 to the present, this research analyses the relationship between nation building, gender and narratives of the past across different generations and geographical spaces. Its focus is not only on shifting state constructions of female veterans of Algeria's bloody war of decolonisation, but also an analysis of how these 'models' have been received, ignored or rewritten by both female veterans in rural and urban areas and younger generations. The research thus seeks to open up new directions in existing research on nation building in Algeria, which has tended to focus on the role of a predominantly male, urban, and now ageing, elite in the institutionalisation, dissemination and manipulation of a homogenous and unifying national history. The project also aims to provide a point of comparison with studies of nation building, notably in post-colonial states. Furthermore, the project has significant contemporary relevance in the context of the 2011 'Arab Spring', as it seeks to provide insights into the national and transnational frames of reference of a segment of Algerian youth, namely trainee teachers. Recent events have highlighted that this an underexplored area in Anglophone academia. The main output of the project is a monograph entitled 'Rewriting the veteran: gender, geography, generation and the Algerian War.' The monograph will draw on a wide range of primary research which I have carried out, including interviews with female veterans in rural and urban areas, a case study of history students at the Ecole normale supérieure (teacher training college) in Algiers, archival research in France, Algeria, the UK and the US and an extensive study of the Algerian press. A linked period of institutional research leave before the proposed start of the Fellowship will enable me to complete targeted additional research in Algeria (including further research into student attitudes) and begin writing up. The six months of the award would thus be devoted to completing the monograph and disseminating the research. Chapter 1 of the monograph analyses the role of women in the Algerian War as both participants and symbols in nationalist and colonial propaganda. Chapter 2 examines the evolution of the female veteran in official history, with a particular emphasis on official discourse, national days, commemorative ceremonies, museums and monuments. Chapter 3 analyses how the female veteran has been used in counter-discourse, notably by feminist groups from the 1970s onwards, who in denouncing a 'post-independence betrayal' of female veterans rewrite these women as proto-feminist activists. It also seeks to explore how this has influenced much academic writing on women in the Algerian War. Chapters 4 and 5 use rural and urban case studies to explore how veterans themselves recount their past, the networks which emerge, the forms transmission takes and the interactions between these women, their stories and the dominant narrative. Chapter 6 focuses on youth perceptions of female veterans and the teaching of history more broadly, with case studies (2007/2011) demonstrating how in the context of Islamism, globalisation and the demographic decline of the war generation, representations of veterans and war narratives have metamorphosed.Through an evidence-based approach, the research thus seeks to develop a nuanced account of the contradictions, compromises and forms of resistance involved in nation building and political legitimisation in single party and authoritarian regimes, and the transnational contexts in which they operate.