Congratulations to Elisabeth Bloxam (’15), the latest recipient of the McCormack-Reboussin scholarship in French & Francophone Studies! Starting this summer, Elisabeth Bloxam will research an honors thesis entitled “Le Mythe et la Mémoire : Les séquelles de la deuxième guerre mondiale en France à travers ses monuments nationaux.”
This research will focus on the lasting effects of the Resistance Myth, the romanticized idea of the French Resistance as a national movement that was perpetuated by French leaders at the end of the war in an attempt to unify a nation in crisis. More specifically, her research will examine the endurance, eventual discrediting, and current status of the Resistance Myth through a study of collective memory and museums. She will examine the complex mechanics of collective memory through a study of French museums dedicated to WWII. She hopes to draw a comparison between the breakdown of collective memory in France in the 1970s and the proliferation of WWII museums erected in the 1980s.