The Transmission of Memories Related to Stigmatisation: Official and Family Memories Related to Collaboration and Colonisation in Belgium
Internal reference number : ARC 20/25 -110
Start date : 01/09/2020
End date :31/0832024
Conflictual contexts often lead to contentious memories. Protagonists negotiate for the recognition and acceptance of their interpretation of a disputed past, as well as for its preservation as an official narrative. New generations appropriate this past in light of their own understanding of history and their knowledge of their family’s involvement.
The interest of our research lies in the intersection between these family narratives and the official management of two controversial episodes in Belgium's national past: the repression of collaboration after the Second World War and the return of Belgian colonists to Belgium in 1960 (after the independence of the Congo).
These two cases are particularly emblematic in relation to the crucial question of the coexistence of groups with not only different but also contradictory memories. The current situation in Belgium reflects a question that arises in a large number of states: how to represent a past that continues to divide?
The project has two major objectives:
- It will explore the inescapable tension between public and private practices of remembrance, and between official and underground memories.
- It will examine the transmission of memories across three generations.
This innovative multilayered analysis will be possible thanks to the interdisciplinary dimension of the research team (political sciences, history and psychology).