Une mémoire à distances

Abstract

Many are the veterans who took part in the 1917 mutinies or who experienced them at close range. Yet, transmitting that memory proves extremely complex, so difficult it is to fully accept a mass movement of disobedience in wartime and award it a stable or consensual significance. The veterans bear witness to the 1917 mutinies as these were part of their war experience and because they generally reject any sort of «nonsense» that makes the past prettier than it actually was. At the same time, when they tell of these rebellions they usually mark their distance from their narrative - which is what is under study here. One might therefore conclude that these mutinies have become a sort of double memory.

Keywords

• memory
• war veterans (1914-1918)
• World War I
• mutiny
• historiography