The American Civil War : 1860-1865 photo

The American Civil War: 1861-1865

  1. Introduction to Puritanism and Expansionism
  2. Antebellum South
  3. Life in the Plantations
  4. USA: North and South
  5. O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny
  6. The social context of America in the early 19th century
  7. The American Civil War: 1861-1865
  8. America: The New Nation
  9. After the American Civil War: The Reconstruction
  10. America: West to the Pacific
  11. Years of Growth

The American Civil War started with the secession crisis on April 12 1861 and ended with the assassination of Lincoln and the abolition of slavery on May 9, 1865. It transformed the political, economic and social life of the nation.

It first began with a constitutional struggle and then became a test of federal authority but soon took a broader dimension. The initial belief it would be short proved tragically to be mistaken.

The seceding states fought to achieve independence and yet, they closely modeled the government of their Confederacy on the American one. Lincoln’s administration responded with a crusade to preserve the union and expanded its war aims to include the destruction of slavery and the liberation of all black slaves.

In the end, the Union had been preserved and questions left unresolved were answered at a very high cost in human terms: 600 000 lives, which is still the largest fatality in any American war (it was worse than Vietnam).

The Civil War: the story of a secession

The secession started in South Carolina, which withdrew from the Union. It was a direct response to Lincoln’s election. That decision was taken in December 1860. In less than 6 weeks, the other 6 states of the “Lower South” had also seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

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Deux semaines en Thaïlande : train de la mort, pont de la rivière Kwaï et Bangkok photo 12

Deux semaines en Thaïlande : train de la mort, pont de la rivière Kwaï et Bangkok

Nous embarquons dans le bus pour 2h30 de trajet et arrivons vers 10h30 à la gare de Kanchanaburi. Au programme, une virée en train sur la ligne de chemin de fer de la mort. Rien à voir avec un train fantôme ou une descente à pic dans le train de la mine.

C’est à son histoire que cette ligne doit son nom funeste: elle a été construite pendant la seconde guerre mondiale par des prisonniers de guerre JEATH (from Japan, England, Australia, America, Thaïland, and Holland).

A cause de la maladie et des mauvais traitements qui leur ont été infligés durant la construction, des milliers d’hommes ont péri. Chaque traverse de chemin de fer représente un mort et la voie en compte plus de seize mille.

Nous embarquons dans le train (c’est la journée train !) et cours de notre itinéraire qui traverse rizières, plaines brûlées et champs de manioc.

Nous passons sur le fameux pont, rivière Kwaï d’un coté, flanc de falaise de l’autre.

Le trajet dure 1h30 dans la pampa thaï – ce qui un peu longuet étant donné que le passage sur le pont dure à peine quelques secondes.

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Anatoly Petrov - Polygon (1978) photo

Anatoly Petrov – Polygon (1978)

Quelque chose de radicalement différent aujourd’hui : un court-métrage d’animation russe réalisé par Anatoly Petrov en 1978, basé sur une histoire de science fiction militaire anti-guerre de Sever Gansovsky :

Dans un future pas trop lointain, un scientifique d’une grande puissance militaire chercher à venger son fils (mort au combat pendant la guerre) et invente donc une arme capable de mettre fin au conflit.

Il s’agitun tank automatisé capable de lire les pensées et qui réagit à certaines émotions humaines comme l’hostilité ou la peur.

Les personnages du film ont des visages très proches des célébrités de l’époque : on pourra reconnaître Ringo Starr, Jean Gabin, Paul Newman, Yul Brynner ou Mel Ferrer entre autres.

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Le squelette de Richard III retrouvé sous les fondations d'un parking à Leicester photo

Le squelette de Richard III retrouvé sous les fondations d’un parking à Leicester

Des archéologues affirment que les restes du corps qui ont été excavés en dessous d’un parking à Leicester le 4 février 2013 appartiennent au roi anglais Richard III.

King_Richard_III

Le squelette, retrouvé en septembre 2012, présente au niveau de la colonne vertébrale des signes de scoliose, que Richard III avait certainement, et des blessures de guerre qui correspondent aux récits de la mort de Richard III au cours de la Guerre des Deux-Roses.

C’est ce qui a poussé les archéologues à demander des tests plus poussés afin de vérifier son identité.

Les chercheurs de l’Université de Leicester ont donc conduit une série de tests, dont un test de l’ADN extrait d’une dent et d’un os de Michael Ibsen, un descendant actuel de la soeur de Richard III, Anne of York.

Ce test a confirmé la relation génétique entre l’ADN d’Ibsen et celui du squelette. Ces restes sont donc bien ceux de Richard III.

Richard III et la Guerre des Deux-Roses

Richard III est né en 1452 et a gouverné l’Angleterre de 1483 à 1485. Son règne se termina par sa mort à la bataille de Bosworth Field, la bataille finale dans la guerre civile anglaise que l’on connait sous le nom de Guerre des Deux-Roses, opposant la maison royale de Lancastre à la maison royale d’York.

La guerre prend fin en 1485, quand le dernier des rois Plantagenêt Richard III d’Angleterre meurt au champ d’honneur, et qu’Henri VII devient roi.

La maison de Lancastre descendait de Jean de Gand, duc de Lancastre et 3e fils du roi Édouard III.

Celle d’York descendait de son frère Edmond de Langley (1341-1402), 4e fils du roi Édouard III, devenu duc d’York en 1385.

L’emblème de la maison de Lancastre était la rose rouge, tandis que celui des York était la rose blanche, ce qui est à l’origine du nom donné a posteriori à ce conflit.

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Last Resort saison 1 photo

Last Resort saison 1

Voici Last Resort, une nouvelle série de science-fiction/thriller réalisée par Shawn Ryan et diffusée sur ABC.

Nous sommes dans un futur proche : un sous-marin nucléaire américain, le Colorado, reçoit l’ordre de tirer contre le Pakistan. Lorsque le capitain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) demande confirmation, il est relevé de ses fonctions.

Son second, le Lieutenant Commandant Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman), demande également confirmation de l’ordre et le vaisseau est attaqué par le sous-marin Illinois. Deux tirs nucléaires sont lancés sur le Pakistan.

Déclaré ennemis de leur propre pays, l’équipage s’échappe et se refuge dans un campement de l’OTAN situé sur l’île de Sainte Marina (une île française fictive dans l’Océan Idien) dans lequel ils forment une société qui devient le plus petit état nucléaire du monde.

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google-v-microsoft-v-apple

Google vs Microsoft vs Apple : state of mind

Parce qu’au fond, vous savez bien qu’entre Google, Microsoft et Apple, tout est histoires d’interopérabilité ou de systèmes propriétaires, d’API ouvertes ou non, et de logiques mercantiles plus ou moins avouées :

google v microsoft v apple

RIP Steve Jobs.

herbes hautes

Intermission : aller-simple pour une bataille rangée

Tchak-a-ta-chak-a-ta-chak-a-ta-chak.

Les lettres défilent devant mes yeux à demi-clos. Le bruit me rappelle une arme automatique. Je ferme les yeux un bref instant.

Lorsque je les rouvre, je suis embourbé jusqu’aux genoux. Mes vêtements humides me collent à la peau alors que quelques gouttes de transpiration coulent lentement le long de ma colonne vertébrale.

Une patrouille de trois militaires passe devant moi sans me voir.

Le vacarme est assourdissant, l’air est à la fois humide et âcre à cause des fumées. On ne voit rien à cinq mètres mais on entend des cris et des injonctions en plusieurs langues, dont plusieurs exotiques que je ne comprends pas.

Je continue d’avancer, mon paquetage tapant durement contre mes reins, baïonnette au fusil.

Tchak-a-tachak-a-tachak-a-tachak.

Mes tympans bourdonnent. Putain de mission. Mais où est donc le reste de mon unité ?

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West to the Pacific photo

America: West to the Pacific

  1. Introduction to Puritanism and Expansionism
  2. Antebellum South
  3. Life in the Plantations
  4. USA: North and South
  5. O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny
  6. The social context of America in the early 19th century
  7. The American Civil War: 1861-1865
  8. America: The New Nation
  9. After the American Civil War: The Reconstruction
  10. America: West to the Pacific
  11. Years of Growth

A westward expansion

Expansion is both commercial and territorial. American expansion was always a sort of global attitude involving territorial growth and commercial expansion, exactly like a body that grows. America has always been perceived as a body.

The growth is so huge that nobody can do anything about it: unlimited development, though only extending to the West.

In 1800, the Western Boundary/Border was the Mississippi River. Beyond it, stood great areas of land, not very well known: 600 miles to the Rocky Mountains.

Louisiana was still a French territory (and France was then ruled by Napoleon). Napoleon sold Louisiana to the Americans for 15 million dollars to make war in Europe with Britain. As Louisiana was a huge territory, the American territories doubled over the night. Thanks, Napoleon!

Jefferson had sent explorers to the West to find an easy way to the Pacific. Louis and Clark left in 1804 and set off up the Missouri River. They marched for 10 weeks in the Rocky Mountains and ate their horses.

They finally reached the Columbia River, on which they floated down to the Pacific.

In December 1805, they reached the Pacific, after 4,000 miles. They failed to find an easy way but they showed the journey was possible and indirectly favoured expansion thanks to the useful information they brought back.

Oregon was a territory stretching from Alaska to California and to the Rocky Mountains to Louisiana.

In 1804, it was claimed by 4 countries: the US, Britain, Spain (owning California) and Russia (owning Alaska). The US and Britain had the strongest positions because they had sent people to scout to recognize the land and to settle trading posts.

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The plot in Regeneration by Pat Barker photo

A transformed vision of time in Regeneration

Introduction

Space, setting, the interaction between landscape and mindscape and the curious similarities between outdoors places in Scotland and the landscape of the Flanders correspond to the writer’s intention of similarity: the characters are so obsessed by the war that they see it in Scotland.

This obsession ultimately transforms their vision of time.

The present is the past

Indeed, the characters have no present. It applies to all traumatized soldiers:

  • conscious: remembering.
  • unconscious: hallucination

For instance, Sassoon had hallucinations (p.12): “the pavement was covered in corpses“. Then he says he had no more: the reader can doubt it:

  • p.5: “he saw lines of men“.
  • p.142: “with a crack like rifle fire“.

The same happens to Burns: (p.37): “a branch rattled like machine gun fire“.
And to Prior:

  • p.214: “the darkness, the nervousness, the repeated and unnecessary swallowing…
  • p.215: “at this distance, her eyes merged into a single eye“.He remembers the eye he held in the trenches.Love scene turned into a horror scene.

No future

If the past keeps coming back then there is no future.

  • p.118: Rivers’s analysis of Sassoon: “inability to envisage any kind of future“.
  • p.198: “it means you’re obsessed […] you never talk about the future anymore“.

A subjective vision of time

Read passage p.83-84 : conversation between Owens and Sassoon about the war.

Personal time

Interesting passage: 2 people in a hospital talking about their past experience. You would expect present tense to refer to the moment of enunciation and past tenses to refer to the war but here, present tenses are used to refer to the past:

  • “sometimes when you’re alone“.
  • and that makes it something you almost can’t challenge“.
  • what you see every night“.

When the present is used, “you” is used too. Both tense and pronoun have the effect of generalizing their experience so that their personal experience of the war is turned into a universal experience. What happened to them becomes exemplary.

B. Historical time

Generalization has the effect of blurring WW1 as an historical event and of presenting it as an a-historical event.

Owen:

  • you get sense of something ancient“.Owen takes the war out of the contemporary period.
  • men from Marlborough’s army“.He compares WW1 to very distant events in the past.
  • wars distilled themselves into that war“.Owen shows the similarities of all wars. World War One is the model, the paradigm of all wars.

Sassoon refers to the future. The result is the same: war loses its temporal and historical quality.

  • “I seemed to be seeing it from the future”.If he is in the future, then war represents the past.

War loses its historical quality. The common point is that war becomes a sort of symbolic representation of Time.

Time is movement but for them, time is eternal death.

The plot in Regeneration by Pat Barker photo

Landscape and mindscape in Regeneration

Study of a passage p.37-38: “he got off at the next stop […] whine of shells“.

This passage is not a dialogue. The narrator is telling us about Burns. Presence of realistic elements: stress on concrete details (“a tuft of grey wool“). Use of chronological order + realistic framework.

Everything is seen through Burns’s subjectivity: he is the central focalizer and we move from an objective description of landscape to a subjective mindscape.

Presence of subjectivity

Focalization

Burns is the focalizer (internal focalization): “looking up and down“. Burns does not only look, he feels trough his skin: “raindrops”, “burning round the knees”.

He also hears the pigeon.

Narration

Passage characterized with 3rd person narration. From time to time, the voice of the character emerges:

  • “it was so long since he’d been anywhere alone”.
  • “up, up”.

Burns is talking. The main effect is to reduce the distance between the reader and the character.

The impossible escape

Burns has left the hospital in an impulse. He does not know where he wants to go. His mental state is extremely fragile and even the traffic is too much for him. He favours a solitary place: “a hill”. Desire for escape:

  • out of hospital.
  • away from human beings.

The hill: a savage and desolate place. The stress is on the upward movement:

  • “up, up”
  • repetition of “hill”
  • “climbing”
  • “crest”

When there is an insistence on something in the text, it may have a symbolic meaning.

  • upward movement: usually trying to find a better world.
  • quite consistent with his desire to get away from human beings.
  • it is unconscious.

The problem is that he goes up but he is stopped: “way barred by a force”. His progression is hindered and he becomes a prisoner of Nature. Intention to move on: “he pressed two strands of wire apart” but failure: “catching his sleeve”. Then panic: “breaking into a sweat”. Burns tries to protect himself: “steeple of his cupped hands”.

There are 2 symbolic meanings:

  • protecting his breath,
  • steeple: symbol of the church.
    => he ought to take shelter.

An aggressive nature

3 elements out of 4 are present in the text:

  • Air: wind
  • Earth: mud
  • Water: rain

The 4 elements are necessary to life but here rain aggresses Burns and blinds him. No freedom. Air: high wind and maline intention (evil wind). “Snatching away” : the wind is trying to kill him.

The landscape of Scotland becomes the landscape of Flanders. Burns mistakes a place for another (confusion) and a moment for another: there is no present for Burns since what he lives is the war.

That is the way Pat Barker chose to express Burns’ trauma.