Propaganda: purpose and practice in the sixteenth and twentieth century
Call for papers
Workshop
Université Libre de Bruxelles, Institute for
European Studies, October 23, 2009
The use of the term "propaganda", despite its
origin in the expression "propaganda
fide" that dates from the seventeenth century,
has flourished first and foremost in the
field of contemporary political communication.
It is only rather recently that the term
"propaganda" has been reinvested to other, more
distant periods of history as a key
concept of scholarly study. Many recent books and essays on the practices of
persuasion in the sixteenth century, a time of religious strife and political
centralisation, now resort to the term "propaganda"
But how do historians of early modern societies
use a concept that became central for
those who study modern mass society? Which
semantic shifts can be observed in the
use of the term "propaganda" by early modern historians? And is it possible to
compare the purposes and practices they describe with the research subjects of
historians working on the twentieth century?
Only a diachronic approach will allow us
to answer these questions. It has to go hand in
hand with a change of perspective: the
focus must be on the long-term means and
techniques of propaganda instead of on its
specific contents.
On the basis of work in progress, contributors
are invited to tackle the following
questions for the 16th century or/and for the 20th century:
-What is the terminology of propaganda? What are
the definitions of the term? In the
sources? In the historiographical tradition? And in current research?
-Who are those who produce propaganda? What are their aims? Which practices do
they resort to? And who do they want to influence?
- What kind of problems (sources, methodology)
do historians confront in the study of
the production and the "reception" of propaganda?
The languages of the workshop will be French and English.
We encourage proposals by young researchers and
ask that those interested submit a
short abstract (max. 1 page) by email before 1st July 2009 to:
propagandes16-20[at]ulb.ac.be
The workshop will take place on 23 October 2009 at the Institute for European
Studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles.
Organisers: Irene Di Jorio, Stéphanie Gonçalves, Véronique Pouillard, Monica
Stensland and Monique Weis.
