‘The Great Forgetting’ is about the process of consolidation of French republicanism in the early, formative years of the French Third Republic and the regime’s accordant search for the republic’s...Show more‘The Great Forgetting’ is about the process of consolidation of French republicanism in the early, formative years of the French Third Republic and the regime’s accordant search for the republic’s legitimacy in the aftermath of l’année terrible - the year of 1871, during which France had to deal with the loss of the Franco-Prussian war, the fall of the Second Empire, the creation of the Third Republic, the siege of Paris by the Prussians, the defeat and humiliating peace terms, the Paris Commune, and new ideas about the nation. This process can otherwise be described as the creation of a history and accordant commemorative tradition of a Republic by its government that had to account for its legitimacy in the aftermath of a violent past. The whole will be analysed by considering the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris as a locus for national symbolism of the French Third Republic. This thesis argues that the cemetery can be considered as a stage for performing politics used by the governments of the Third Republic and its abovementioned opponents as a place to create their definition of France from 26 March 1871 onward. While describing this mnemonic battle on Père-Lachaise about the place of l’année terrible in the history of the Third Republic, this thesis analyses why it was that a ‘Communard memory’ of this period prevailed over any other constructed collective memory in relation to issues of legitimacy of and in the early Third Republic.Show less
Between 1945 and 2001 possibilities for homosexual men to move to the Netherlands improved considerably. This thesis examines how and why this development took place. In 1967 for the first time men...Show moreBetween 1945 and 2001 possibilities for homosexual men to move to the Netherlands improved considerably. This thesis examines how and why this development took place. In 1967 for the first time men were allowed to stay in the Netherlands officially, despite their sexuality. From 1974 partner migration became possible, allowing the foreign partner to stay 'because' of his sexuality. In 1981 the Netherlands was the first country that allowed asylum seekers to be granted refugee status on the basis of their sexuality. Main reasons for this change are the secularisation of the Netherlands, a liberalisation of family law, progressive politics in the 1970s because of the social (and sexual) revolutions in the 1960s. Also very important was the emergence of the gay emancipation movement in the Netherlands which became politically active in the 1970s. Nevertheless, implementation of these novel opportunities to settle in the Netherlands proved more difficult. Local police forces applied their own moral judgments on immigrants and it took until the 1990s before a homosexual asylum seeker was granted refugee status for his sexuality. This thesis therefore argues that the Netherlands wanted to show abroad how progressive its policies were, while practically, the results of the policies were not so progressive at all. Nevertheless, the Netherlands became to be known abroad as a safe haven for homosexual men. This was an image that the Dutch government tried to avoid in the 1960s, while it embraced the image in the 1990s. This thesis adds to the debate of policy change, as well as to the debate around the difference between policy and practice, taking immigration of homosexual men as a case study.Show less
