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School of Modern Languages and Cultures

Week 20

Core reading

Emmanuel Todd, 'Une crise religieuse', Qui est Charlie? Sociologie d'une crise religieuse (Paris: Seuil, 2015), ch.1, pp. 27-66. Available here as scanned extract.

Advance preparation for seminar discussion

  1. Research independently:
    • the Paris terrorist atrocities of January 2015
    • the French public response to them
    • mainstream French political reactions to Todd's analysis in this book
  2. Identify the methodologies, approaches and disciplines on which Todd draws. What assumptions does he make?
  3. Summarise, in your own words, Todd's overall argument in this first chapter.
  4. What role does European integration play in his argument?
  5. What exactly does he understand by the demographic category he terms 'zombie Catholics' (55)?
  6. 'La diabolisation de l'islam répond au besoin intrinsèque d'une société totalement déchristianisée.' (66) Discuss Todd's analysis in this chapter of the French public response to the Paris terrorist atrocities of January 2015.*
  7. To what extent do you find Todd's a helpful response to the January 2015 atrocities? Give reasons for your answer.

Further reading

  • Balzacq, Thierry (ed.), Securitization Theory: How Security Problems Emerge and Dissolve (London: Routledge, 2011). Available vie the Library as an e-book here.
  • C.A.S.E. Collective, 'Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto', Security Dialogue 37, 4 (2006): 443-487. Connect via the Library here.
  • Chabal, Emile (ed.), 'Actualités: What future for French politics in an age of terrorism?', special feature in Modern & Contemporary France 25, 1 (2017): 66-88. Available via the Library here.
  • Foley, Frank, Countering Terrorism in Britain and France: Institutions, Norms and the Shadow of the Past (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013). Available via the Library as an e-book here.
  • Linke, Uli and Smith, Danielle Taana (eds.), Cultures of Fear: A Critical Reader (London: Pluto, 2009). See here.
  • Rigouste, Mathieu, L'Ennemi intérieur: la généalogie coloniale et militaire de l'ordre sécuritaire dans la France contemporaine (Paris: La Découverte, 2011). See here.

Slides

Will be posted here for download after the teaching session.