« Tales of The Rails » : les récits de vie des cheminots anglais

Selon le catalogue raisonné en trois volumes des autobiographies ouvrières anglaises publié sous la direction de J. Burnett, D. Vincent & D. Mayall, The Autobiography of the Working Class : an Annotated Critical Bibliography, il y eut presque deux mille autobiographies ouvrières publiées avant 1985. Dans cet ensemble, 65 textes (3,25 %) ont été écrits par des cheminots. Citant quelques extraits de textes choisis, cet article présente une typologie détaillée de ces autobiographies et de leurs auteurs. Parmi ceux-ci, près de la moitié sont des agents de l’Exploitation (chauffeurs, mécaniciens, chefs de train, atteleurs, soit 30,46 %), 13 appartiennent à la Voie ou au Matériel (ajusteurs, ouvriers, soit 20 %) et 12 ont occupé des postes de responsabilité (chefs de gare, soit 18 %). Deux seulement, enfin, sont des femmes. Parmi ces autobiographies, on peut distinguer trois genres principaux. Le premier (13,20 %) est celui des textes retraçant des parcours menant aux divers statuts de dirigeants du mouvement ouvrier (membres du parlement, dirigeants syndicaux). Le second (21,32 %) rassemble les récits de vie intégrale d’ouvriers (y compris les études, la famille, les centres d’intérêts). Enfin, le troisième genre (31,48 % du corpus) s’adresse aux enthousiastes de « steam » – admirateurs des locomotives à vapeur –, les récits se limitant à l’expérience de la conduite.According to The Autobiography of the Working Class : an Annotated Critical Bibliography, edited by J. Burnett, D. Vincent & D. Mayall, nearlytwothousands autobiographies of workerswerepublishedbefore 1985. In that set, 65 texts (3,25 %) have been written by railwaymen. Quotingsomesignificantexcerpts, this article presents a detailedtypology of these autobiographies and of theirauthors. Nearlyhalf of the latter are members of the train crew or belong to the OperationDepartment (drivers, stokers, conductors, yard men, thatis 30.46 %), 13 wereemployed in rollingstock’s or tracks’ maintenance and repair (metalworkers, trackmen, thatis 20 %) and 12 occupiedresponsible positions (station masters, 18 %). Onlytwo, finally, are women. Wecandistinguishthree main categoriesamongthese narratives. The first (13,20 %) gathers the textsdescribing courses towardvariousstatuses of labour movement leaders (MP’s, trade union leaders). The second one (21,32 %) bringstogetherintegral life tales of workers (includingstudies, family, hobbies). At last, the third genre (31,48 %) addresses the « steam » fans – locomotive enthusiasts – the narrative beingmost of the time limited to drivingexperience

Rethinking slavery heritage tourism

This paper argues that the investigation of slavery heritage within a ‘thana’- or ‘dark’ tourism framework invariably fails to appreciate the subtleties, power relationships and various contestations that are at play in both the presentation and consumption of former Transatlantic Slave Trade (TAST) sites. Instead, the authors argue that a combination of Halbwachs’ collective memory theory and Tunbridge and Ashworth’s concept of dissonant heritage can provide a deeper understanding of tourism linked to such sites. A study of TAST sites in Ghana identified six key groups of stakeholders involved in the interpretation of slavery heritage, each with its own agenda, desire to remember or forget slave memories and desire to compose different narratives. By analysing collective slave memories, the study proposes a framework that demonstrates that tourism to TAST-related sites is complex and nuanced because it relates to the nature of the historic event itself, intrinsic qualities of TAST-related sites in terms of current relevance and the closeness of the event or site to each stakeholder.School of Hotel and Tourism Managemen

The politics of mourning: Survivor contributions to memorials in post-genocide Rwanda

The memory of the 1994 genocide overshadows the present in Rwanda. The landscape is marked with burial and memorial sites, and April has become a month of mourning with national genocide commemorations held annually. The genocide memorials have been sanctioned and promoted by the state, but they are also the product of initiatives by genocide survivors. This article argues that survivors have made substantial and distinctive contributions to memorialization in Rwanda. It explores a survivor politics of memory and its relationship to trauma and grief