Marianne publishes a double issue on uchronies, forms of rewriting history in a fictional way.

On the Culture Médias set, Thursday on Europe 1, Périco Légasse, one of the editors-in-chief of the weekly, defends an innovative format which serves both to open up perspectives and to defend the ideas of the newspaper.

INTERVIEW

For her last issue of the year,

Marianne

 has chosen historical fiction: "What if Jean-Luc Mélenchon qualified for the second round of the 2017 presidential election?", "What if Algeria had remained French in 1962? "

The weekly publishes a total of about fifty uchronies, an alternative literary genre, written by historians, writers and journalists.

One of the editors-in-chief of the weekly, Périco Légasse, was the guest of Philippe Vandel, Thursday, on Europe 1, partner of this double number with triple interest.

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To "open up perspectives"

Périco Légasse defends an issue that questions alternative scenarios to those of historical reality, from François Mitterrand to the "yellow vests".

And for him, nothing works better than this world deeply agitated by the health crisis of the coronavirus.

"We can see that we are in a world where everything is possible and everything is allowed. Finally, it is perhaps a measure of reason to say 'This is what could have happened if such a circumstance had occurred. in such a way, if the conjuncture had been different '. "

For him, this therefore makes it possible to "open up the perspectives" of a reality that has not happened: "Finally, all the doors are open to the most incredible hypotheses and this is what we wanted to demonstrate. " 

>> Find Culture Médias in replay and podcast here

To fight against smoky theories

An uchrony, "it is the best anti-conspiracy instrument", supports Périco Légasse, according to whom the conspiracy amounts to "extrapolating a theory from an isolated element".

With this issue,

Marianne

therefore hopes to "unseat the plot": "There are two ways of reading the news. Either we stick to the facts with Cartesian rationalism, French, or we give free rein to our imagination and there, we start with the conspiracy thesis. It is a perfect act of rationality to say that uchronia can explain to you that things can be different. " 

To defend his ideas

The editorial line of

Marianne

, a weekly which notably defends a demanding vision of secularism, is reflected in this issue, by the admission of Périco Légasse: "We were pleased to imagine scenarios that corresponded to our ambitions, to our beliefs, our convictions, and we obviously imagine them in a positive way, "he explains.

"Someone else could have written this same solution in a much sadder version. It is true that we had fun imagining Philippe Séguin Prime Minister", he explains.

We therefore find stories that carry "another definition of Europe, of the Republic, of secularism" or independent Quebec.

"We can also have fun hoping for better days, with uchronia."