The decolonisation of history : historians and historical consciousness in francophone and anglophone anti-colonial communities, 1930-1970

Resource Information

The work The decolonisation of history : historians and historical consciousness in francophone and anglophone anti-colonial communities, 1930-1970 represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The decolonisation of history : historians and historical consciousness in francophone and anglophone anti-colonial communities, 1930-1970

Title remainder

historians and historical consciousness in francophone and anglophone anti-colonial communities, 1930-1970

Statement of responsibility

Sharon Elisheva Turkington

Creator

• Turkington, Sharon Elisheva

Contributor

• European University Institute, Department of History and Civilization

Subject

• Anti-imperialist movements -- Europe -- History -- 20th century
• Decolonization -- Historiography
• Historiography -- Europe -- History -- 20th century

Language

eng

Summary

This thesis examines the role of historical thinking and historical knowledge in anti-colonial ideology, in a process identified as the 'decolonization of history.' This study argues that historical thinking was central to anticolonial discourses during the period 1930-1970, and traces the evolution of 'historical rhetoric' across the chronology of decolonisation. Informed by both the history of ideas and imperial history, it presents a detailed study of sources demonstrating the role of historians in decolonization by means of anti-colonial networks and publications across the French and British empires. Secondly, it highlights the historiographical phenomenon which this event produced, the decolonization of the discipline of history. This work is shaped biographically using the legacies of Suzanne Césaire, Paulette Nardal, Cheikh Anta Diop, CLR James, and Melville Herskovits. These thinkers not only represent different linguistic backgrounds and social stratum, but also variations in anti-colonial thought, including Négritude, Afrocentrism, and Marxism. However, the commonality between these thinkers is their identification of historical mythologizing as a crucial component of imperial ideology. Furthermore, their work shows the point at which anti-colonial historical thinking became essential to the project of decolonization. They referred not only to the desire to convince others of the richness and complexity of African history, but to their lifelong struggles with colonial narratives which, they argued, withheld or misinterpreted the historical facts imperative to self-knowledge, and sovereignty. The objectivity of these thinkers, much debated by recent scholars, is not the focus of this thesis. Rather, this thesis treats all historical knowledge as a project intricately bound to power, and the quest for believability. By re-examining history as a mobilising device in the context of empire and decolonisation, we can learn more about how historians function as part of a normative education system, and what happens when the norm is perverted, or questioned

Member of

• EUI PhD theses

Cataloging source

FIE

Date time place

Defence date: 10 January 2018

Dewey number

940.28072

Dissertation note

Thesis (Ph. D.)--European University Institute (HEC), 2018

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

theses

Series statement

• EUI PhD theses
• EUI theses