The Illustrated Press and the Writing of History: The Recueils of L'Illustration in 1848. (2nd October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tranca, Alexandra
• Is Part Of: Dix-neuf. Volume 21:Number 4(2017)
• Page Start: 280
• Page End: 296
• Publication Date: 2017-10-02
• Subjects: Illustrated journals -- recueils -- historical representation -- L'Illustration -- 1848 Revolution -- historical consciousness; France -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 944.007
• DOI: 10.1080/14787318.2017.1446318
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-7318

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article discusses the relationship between journalism and historical representation by exploring the particular case of the recueils of illustrated periodicals. With the adoption of a news section, L'Illustration asserts its ambition to participate in the writing of history and faces its first challenge in this sense during the 1848 insurrections. While weekly issues cover events as they as they unfold, or in their immediate aftermath, the instalments are also collected in biannual volumes. These occupy a problematic space, transcending the realm of the press to aspire to the status of contemporary histories. Chronicling events in real time, articles retain the urgency of tone, freshness of data and limited perspective of eyewitness records. They lack the reflective quality given by composition, temporal distance, and in-depth research. However, through textual and visual discourses that adopt narrative modes, L'Illustration draws attention to the fact that it contributes to the history of the nineteenth century. Retrospectively, the recueils constitute a form of historical account composed in the present.