Opposing the Archive

Abstract


 
 
 On 17 October 1961, the municipal police in Paris attacked Algerian demonstrators who were participating in a peaceful protest to show their support for Algeria’s war for independence from France. Thousands of protesters were arrested, and an unknown number were shot and killed, with reports of bodies being thrown into the Seine River. The massacre was brutal, yet important details of the event remain unknown, as reflected by the official state archives’ records about the massacre continuing to be partially unavailable for public access. Various fictional accounts of the Algerian massacre in Paris have emerged as alternative records. How can these alternative records of the massacre, in particular literary texts and other artistic interpretations, help to counteract the power and oppressive forces that exist with the official state archives of the event? Using a variety of sources, including scholarly works, French state archival descriptions, and recent media reports, this paper argues that fictional records of the massacre can contest the power and oppressive forces of the official state archive by existing as alternate sites of memory, by challenging the control and authority of official records, and by contributing towards a journey to archival and social justice.