The Un-European Idea: Vichy and Eurafrica in the Historiography of Europeanism |
| |
Authors: | Julia Nordblad |
| |
Institution: | 1. University of Gothenburg, Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, University of Gothenburg, Box 200, 405 30 G?teborg, Swedenjulia.nordblad@lir.gu.se |
| |
Abstract: | Imperialist and collaborationist conceptions of Europeanisms have generally been excluded from mainstream historiography with reference to their alleged un-Europeanness. However, by discussing the ideas and writings of two French Europeanists—Louis Le Fur’s and René Viard’s—in the years 1940–41, I argue that it is precisely their Vichyite and imperialist conceptions of Europeanness that underpin their political ideas of a united Europe. Their works therefore call into question a prevailing historiographical narrative of Europeanism as a benign counterpoint to a dark European past. Since, as demonstrated in this article, French Europeanist visions have often been bound up with both collaborationist and imperialist interests, I argue for the need to develop a more inclusive and critical historiographical perspective on the history of Europeanism. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|