Collaborationism, nationalism and historical culture: uses of Fustel de Coulanges by L'Action Française in Vichy France (1940-1944)

• Grant number: 22/10825-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: August 27, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Glaydson José da Silva
• Grantee: Lucas Arantes Lorga
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/01266-9 - Uses of the Past in Education: Receptions of Antiquity by the Cercle Fustel de Coulanges during the Vichy Regime (1940-1944), BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The present project intends to study the uses of the figure and work of the methodical French historian of the 19th century Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges by the reactionary movement of the 20th century Action Française. Starting from the magazine L'Action Française, founded in 1908 and extinct after the Liberation in 1944, it will be possible to carry out three approaches to the documents: first, to understand the political and intellectual role played in the consolidation of the Vichy Government by Action Française, contextualizing the movement in its specific political moment. Second, to systematize the concept of nation used by Action Française and compare it with that thought by Coulanges, showing its ruptures and continuities. Finally, to understand how Action Française used the past politically, represented by the historiography of Coulanges. Thus, from the hermeneutic method, we will try to apprehend the relationship between nationalism and historical culture of the organization in the pages of its newspaper. Even though the documentation has been available since 1908, the editions from 1940 to 1944 will be used mainly, a cut defined by the beginning of the Second World War, the extinction of Action Française, the imprisonment of part of its founders and the rise and fall of the Vichy government.