Dissertation Information for Natalia Anatolyevna StarostinaNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: Engineering the empire of images: The representations of railways in interwar France Abstract: The thesis examines the role of railway engineers in shaping the representations of technology in interwar France. The managements of French railway companies undertook a number of initiatives that included the promotion of battlefield tourism, the creation of garden-cities for railway workers, and the introduction of special trains de luxe to the French Riviera. By carrying out these undertakings, railway engineers and managers of the railway companies played an important role in articulating the aspirations of the French bourgeoisie and, ultimately, a new notion of French national identity. In the aftermath of the Great War, nostalgia over the lost Belle Époque became a prevailing mood; nostalgia inspired the interwar revival of trains de luxe that brought the memories of the Orient Express and other symbols of the lost era. By playing with such a sentiment, the managements of the railway companies helped the French bourgeoisie to regain its--otherwise lost--sense of cohesion. The representations of railways evoked the memories of the past that made the bourgeois identity coherent. Such representations combined tradition and innovations, nostalgia and modernity. The politics of paternalism that the management of the Northern railway company carried out embodied a new model of the relationship between the employers and workers. Interwar advertisements of French railways emphasized the modernity of the railway project: to deliver their message, the managements used mass culture and, in particular, colorful posters integrating the aesthetics of avant-garde. In the representations of French railways, railway engineers incorporated the set of symbols and practices that conveyed the visions and aspirations of the French bourgeoisie in interwar France. These initiatives left a profound impact on the identity of French railway engineers as well. Since the late nineteenth century, when being in charge of the construction of colonial railways, railway engineers came to envision their mission as the engineers of the social. During Vichy, railway engineers transformed the projects for modernization of railways into a magic mirror that conveyed the desires of the French elite to see its country capable of implementing the most technologically innovative plans despite the sad realities of the occupation. |
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