Catastrophes in modern france

Research Seminar - IFST-GA 3710

Spring 2015, Mondays 12:30-3:00 — syllabus to be revised (not a final version)

Prof. Stéphane Gerson Office hours (IFS): Mondays 3:00-4:00

stephane.gerson@nyu.edu

Disaster studies go back decades, but only recently have natural and technological catastrophes have become objects of study among historians of France (and other countries as well). These sudden, unexpected, and sometimes unexplained events make visible those forces, power relations, tensions, and vulnerabilities that are otherwise hidden from view. In this respect they serve as a window into their era. They can also propel history in new directions. Sometimes, they do so by provoking disruptions and nourishing ways of thinking, grounds for contestation, or emotional registers. Sometimes, they consolidate pre-existing norms, conceptual frameworks, and social, gendered, or race/ethnicity-based inequalities. Finally, the history of catastrophes can provide a genealogy of our own disaster culture, our own era caught in what one commentator calls “the long emergency.”

This course has a triple agenda — and three corresponding parts.

First, we will delve into recent empirical and theoretical writings about modern catastrophes to engage with key concepts. These include: risk society, spectacles of disaster, trauma, new social possibilities, the disaster state, biological citizenship, states of emergency/exception, symbolic politics, and social drama.

Second, we will test out these concepts (and play with others) through a rich case-study: the first massive railroad crash in France (and perhaps the world), on the Paris-Versailles line in 1842. How did contemporaries anticipate, experience, feel, represent, and respond to this unprecedented event? By delving into contemporary sources, we will ask questions about governmentality, public and private grief, risk and the market, expertise, heroization, wounded and damaged bodies, media and public inquiries, secular and religious representations and rituals.

Finally, each one of you will frame a significant research project on one aspect of this question and workshop it in class during the final weeks of the semester. Each paper will contribute to a collective inquiry whose final outcome — the sum-total of our intellectual efforts — will take us into uncharted territory.

Feb. 6 Risk Society and Spectacular Disasters

Ted Steinberg, “Smoke and Mirrors: The San Francisco Earthquake and Seismic Denial,” in Steven Biel, ed., American Disasters (2001), 103-26.

Kevin Rozario, The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America (2007), chs. 2-3.

Gregory V. Button, “Popular Media Reframing of Man-Made Disasters: A Cautionary Tale,” in Susanna M. Hoffman and Anthony Oliver-Smith, eds., Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of Culture (2002), 143-58.
Feb. 13 Snow Day 

Feb. 20 Trauma and/or New Social Possibilities?

Kai Erikson, “Notes on Trauma and Community,” in Cathy Karuth, ed., Trauma: Explorations in Memory (1995), 183-99.

Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster (2009), 1-62 and 66-70.

Adriana Petryna, “Biological Citizenship: The Science and Politics of Chernobyl-Exposed Populations,” Osiris 19 (2004): 250-65; and Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl (2003), 82-94 and 191-214.

Susanna M. Hoffman, “The Monster and the Mother: The Symbolism of Disaster,” in Hoffman and Oliver-Smith, eds., Catastrophe and Culture, 113-41.
March 3 Précis (due today) and research.

II. A CASE-STUDY: THE MEUDON RAIL ACCIDENT (May 8, 1842)
March 6 The State, Experts, Capitalism, and Critical Voices

Packet of primary sources

Packet of primary sources

Packet of primary sources

Wendy Belcher, Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks (2009), 223-28.

Inundation of the Beaujonc mine (February 28, 1812)

Explosion of the Drerheims steamboat, Lyon (March 2, 1827)

Inundation of the Bois Monzil mine (February 1831)

Earthquake in Martinique (February 8, 1843)

Railroad accident in Fampoux (July 8, 1846)

Collapse of Angers’ suspended bridge (April 16, 1850)

Railroad accident of Vaugirard (September 9, 1855)

Flooding of the Rhône river (May-June 1856)

Steamboat accident on the Saône, Lyon (September 14, 1864)

Explosion of the Sainte-Eugénie mine, Montceau-les-Mines (September 12, 1867)

Railroad accident of Bandol (February 5, 1871)

Flooding of the Garonne (June 1875)

Railroad accident of Flers (August 15, 1879)

Railroad accident of Clichy-Levallois (February 3, 1880)

Railroad accident on the Lyon-Charenton line (September 6, 1881)

Fire in the Printemps department store, Paris (March 8, 1881)

Fire in the Nice theater (March 23, 1881)

Fire in Fort-de-France, Martinique (June 22, 1890)

Fire at the Bazar de la Charité department store, Paris (May 7, 1897)

San Ciriaco hurricane, Guadeloupe (August 1899)

Eruption of Mont-Pelée volcano, Martinique (May 8, 1902)

Fire at the Couronnes subway station, Paris (August 11, 1903)

Courrières mine disaster (March 10, 1906)

Railroad accident in the tunnel of Pouch (December 15, 1908)

Earthquake in Provence (June 11, 1909)

Flooding of the Seine and Doubs rivers (1910)

Railroad accident at Montreuil-Bellay (November 12, 1914)

Railroad accident at Saint-Michel-de Maurienne (December 12, 1917)

Mid-Air Collision over Picardy (April 7, 1922)

Okeechobee hurricane, Guadeloupe (September 1928)

Landslide in Fourvières (November 17, 1930)

Flooding of the Tarn (March 1-4, 1930)

Railroad accident at Lagny-Pomponne (December 23, 1933)

Aiguat (torrential rains and flooding) in the Eastern Pyrénées (October 1940)

Tête de l’Obiou plane crash (November 13, 1950)

Food poisoning of Point-Saint-Esprit (August 15, 1951)

Crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (June 11, 1955)

Collapse of the Malpasset dam (December 2, 1959)

Orly airport plane crash (June 3, 1962)

Crash of Air France flight 117, Pointe-à-Pitre (June 22, 1962)

Hurricane Cleo, Guadeloupe (August 1964)

Explosion of the Feyzin refinery (January 4, 1966)

Crash of Air France flight 212, La Soufrière mountain, Guadeloupe (March 6, 1968)

Avalanche of Val-d’Isère (February 10, 1970)

Mudslide of the Assy plateau (April 15, 1970)

Fire of the 5-7 club in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (November 1, 1970)

Collapse of the Vierzy tunnel (June 16, 1972)

Paris Air Show plane crash (June 3, 1973)

Crash of Pam Flight 816, Papeete (July 22, 1973)

Amoco Cadiz oil spil (March 16, 1978)

Bus accident in Beaune (July 31, 1982)

Flash floods in Nîmes (1988)

Railroad accident at the Gare de Lyon, Paris (June 27, 1988)

Hurricane Hugo, Guadeloupe (September 1989)

Collapse of the Bastia soccer stadium stands (May 5, 1992)

Flooding of Vaison-la-Romaine (September 1992)

Flooding of the Rhône river (October 1993)

Railroad accident at Port-Sainte-Foy (September 8, 1997)

Martin cyclone, French Polynesia (November 1997)

Fire in the Mont-Blanc tunnel (March 24-26, 1999)

Lothar and Martin cyclones (December 1999)

Erika oil spill (December 12, 1999)

Crash of the Concorde, Paris (July 25, 2000)

Explosion of the AZF factory, Toulouse (September 21, 2001)

Prestige oil spill (November 13, 2002)

Heat wave (summer 2003)

Crash of Air Moorea flight 1121, Moorea (August 9, 2007)