Honte et humiliations en guerre
(2024) Bellica. Guerre, histoire et sociétés — Vol. 1, p. 7-16 (2024)
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- Located at the intersection of the history of sensibilities on the one hand and the political and social history of societies at war on the other, this issue of the journal Bellica seeks to understand over a long span of time the complexity of shame and its social and political uses. First described by Aristotle as a passion, and since then as an emotion or a feeling, shame manifests itself at a variety of levels ranging from the individual and the collective to the intimate and the social. This issue highlights the omnipresence of references to shame, ranging from the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad to the descriptions of French naval officers during the Great War. Shame casts its scorn on those whose behavior sullies the honor of war or those for whom defeat means a loss of rank such as the unlucky commanders of Savoy following their defeat at the hands of the Genoa in 1672. The articles published here demonstrate the considerable malleability the notion of shame carries for the warrior, embodying a collection of behaviors without necessarily being automatic in their manifestations. When put to political use, the malleability of shame not only spills into the public sphere and follows war veterans into their daily lives, including those of their families in some cases; but it also creates a means for mobilizing people for war. Finally, this issue analyzes how shame can be used as an instrument of social control – the humiliation of the enemy is part of its subjugation as the pillaging and sexual violence committed during the Hundred Years' War demonstrates, or within combat units where infamy and stigmatization operate through a balancing act between rewards and punishments to ensure discipline and the hierarchical order within the group
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Le Gac, J., & Mostaccio, S. (2024). Honte et humiliations en guerre. Bellica. Guerre, histoire et sociétés, 1, 7-16. https://doi.org/10.70958/bellica.v1i1.2723 (Original work published 2024)