Blunt, Craig Simon (1999) (Re) interpreting intégration : a study of colonial reform during the Algerian War (1954-62). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the writing of individuals whose stance during the Algerian war
of 1954-62 might broadly be defined as favourable to a process of colonial reform.
Focusing above all on the integration programme championed by Jacques Soustelle,
the present study will seek to challenge colonial reformers for their over-generous
reading of France's colonial past; overturn their claim that they had the consent of the
Muslim population for their proposals; critique their reading of the European
population as willing to embrace change; criticise them for replicating many of the
Eurocentric notions of progress and development associated with the old colonial
policy of assimilation; and finally, show how in their search for explanations for the
failure of reform, they failed to appreciate that the dynamics of the colonial system
prevented its reform. Whilst the proposals of reformers were, for the most part, guided
by a genuine, if misguided, good will, the thesis will also identify certain areas where
the attitudes they displayed, and the measures they proposed, fell short of the liberal
principles which they claimed to uphold. In constructing a critique of the colonial
reformers' position, the study draws upon the work of anti-colonialists theorists
writing at the time of the conflict such as Frantz Fanon and Albert Memmi and upon
the assessments of contemporary historians.
Whilst the territory over which this thesis ranges has been partially mapped, it has not
been comprehensively so. No previous study has fully analysed the integration
programme, particularly with the aim of establishing the ways in which it differed
from a policy of assimilation, or considered at length the ideas of its chief architect,
Jacques Soustelle.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT Africa
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Algeria -- History -- Revolution, 1954-1962, Algerian literature (French) -- 20th century, Reformation in literature, Soustelle, Jacques, 1912-1990 -- Criticism and interpretation, Reformers -- Algeria
Official Date:	October 1999
Dates:	Date Event October 1999 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of French Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Shields, James, 1957-
Sponsors:	British Academy
Extent:	vi, 279 leaves
Language:	eng

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