Effets d'Histoire. Reprsenter l'Histoire coloniale forclose

The manner in which forgotten or distorted facts from its colonial past are inscribed in France's postcolonial mentality is approached through the study of the massacre of Algerian immigrants in Paris on 17 October 1961. Firstly, the article lists the various references to the event in written texts during the 1980s and in audiovisual productions during the 1990s, as a step towards understanding the role of the process of anamnesis in creating a postcolonial memory specific to the Hexagon. Then the article examines how repeated references to the event in texts and films create a series of effets d'Histoire that contribute to the reclaiming of forgotten French colonial history. Finally, the article analyses stages in the process of anamnesis between past and present - amnesia, remembering, anamnesis as a way to a better understanding of recent contradictory statements by French politicians as to how colonial history should be presented in postcolonial France.