Dezentrierung des Weltbildes? Die Krise der westlichen Zivilisation, das Ereignis der Dekolonisierung und die Frage des Subjekts im Diskurs der Geschichtsschulbücher in Frankreich in den 1960erJahren

Abstract

The modern colonial representation of the world which in metropolitan France has emphatically manifested itself under the famous title of a mission civilisatrice depended on a methodological nationalism as well as a political-epistemological ethno- and eurocentrism. It thus constituted an imperial western subject position of representation. Yet this central subject position of representation has eventually been challenged and decentered by the historical process of decolonization since the 1950s. Hence this article investigates how and to what extent decolonization affected, changed and rearticulated the subject of representation. To do this it will focus on historical textbook knowledge in France in the 1960s. History textbooks are especially relevant in this regard insofar as they can be described as national autobiographies as well as prominent and effective media of the above mentioned modern (colonial) representation of the world.