Héritage et mémoire

Exercice 1 — Compréhension de l'axe culturel
Corrigé :
Heritage : cultural and historical elements passed down from one generation to the next (e.g. the tradition of African American spirituals, or the architectural heritage of memorials). Counter-memory : a narrative that challenges the dominant or official version of history by giving voice to marginalised groups (e.g. Toni Morrison's 'Beloved' restores the suppressed memory of slavery).
Art as a form of power : Art shapes how societies perceive their past. Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' (1939) exposed racial violence that official culture ignored, forcing a reckoning with American history. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial shifted the discourse on war from glorification to mourning. These examples show art can give power to silenced voices and challenge dominant narratives.

Exercice 2 — Grammaire : present perfect et aspects verbaux
Corrigé :
1. have been calling — present perfect progressif : action qui dure depuis les années 1990 et se poursuit.
2. designed — prétérit simple : date précise et révolue (1981).
3. has welcomed — present perfect simple : résultat chiffrable lié au présent depuis 2016.
4. have argued — present perfect simple : position tenue par des historiens, sans date précise, résultat toujours valable aujourd'hui.

Exercice 3 — Analyse d'œuvre
Corrigé indicatif :
'Beloved' (1987) by Toni Morrison is a novel set in the aftermath of the American Civil War. It tells the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman haunted by the ghost of her dead daughter, whom she killed to spare her from slavery. The novel draws on the real story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who killed her child rather than see her returned to slavery. As Morrison wrote, 'Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another,' highlighting the psychological difficulty of reclaiming one's identity after trauma. 'Beloved' functions as counter-memory because it restores a version of slavery — centred on the interiority, agency and suffering of enslaved people — that mainstream American culture had suppressed or marginalised. Rather than presenting slavery as a distant historical fact, Morrison makes it viscerally present through the supernatural, refusing to let American society forget. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, bringing this counter-memory to a wide readership and contributing to a broader cultural reckoning with the legacy of slavery.

Exercice 4 — Expression écrite — prise de position
Corrigé indicatif :
The debate over controversial statues has intensified since 2020, when activists toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol. The question of whether to remove such monuments is complex and goes to the heart of how societies choose to remember their past.
On the one hand, keeping a statue of a slave trader or colonial oppressor in a place of honour in public space amounts to celebrating his actions. Many argue that a statue is not a history lesson but an act of commemoration — and commemorating Colston sends a harmful message to the descendants of his victims. Furthermore, statues can be moved to museums, where they can be given historical context without implying approval.
On the other hand, some historians warn that physical removal risks bypassing a genuine public reckoning with history. Rather than toppling statues, they suggest adding explanatory plaques or organising community debates. The goal, they argue, should be deeper understanding, not simply erasing uncomfortable figures from the landscape.
To conclude, the issue is not whether history should be forgotten — it clearly should not — but who has the power to decide which stories deserve to be told in public space. Removing a statue need not mean erasing history; it can mean choosing to tell a more honest and inclusive story.

Exercice 5 — Vocabulaire et expression en contexte
Corrigé :
1. come to terms with — s'accommoder de, faire face à (l'histoire de la ségrégation).
2. commemorative — commémoratif (adjectif qualifiant le monument).
3. bear witness to — témoigner de (les injustices).
4. reconciliation — réconciliation entre victimes et auteurs de violences.