The University Press of Lyon published Thursday, September 23 the master's thesis by Samuel Paty devoted to the contemporary history of the color black, almost a year after the death of the teacher, beheaded after showing in class caricatures of Muhammad .
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Christopher Capuano, professor of contemporary history at the University Grenoble-Alpes who was a friend of Samuel Paty since they met on the benches of the university in Lyon, welcomed this "publication
exceptional
" that will "
bring Samuel in the libraries
”. The project that Christophe Capuano initiated in agreement with the family of the deceased, to which the profits on the sale of the book will be donated, is a way "
to pay an academic homage to Samuel Paty but also a cultural homage to enlighten a part of his personality
”.
Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded on October 16, 2020 near his college in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young Chechen refugee who accused him of showing caricatures of Muhammad to his students. His thesis, entitled "
The black, society and symbolism, 1815-1995
", was defended in 1995, while he was a history student in Lyon. The text is interested, before the monographs of Michel Pastoureau on colors, in the representations and symbolism of black, drawing as much from literature, painting as from cinematographic or musical references. "
He wondered about the fascination - and repulsion - of society for black, which made it possible to question existential and spiritual questions
", Christophe Capuano explains to AFP, assuring that"
later work has corroborated the intuitions
"of the apprentice historian.
In their preface, Christophe Capuano and historian Olivier Faure warn readers not to "
reread certain passages - such as those devoted to the works of Odilon Redon - in a premonitory or anachronistic way, even if we may feel a certain uneasiness with regard to tragic circumstances of the author's death
”.
Samuel Paty remarked in his memoir that "
severed heads are numerous
" in the work of the Symbolist painter and engraver.
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Another homage "
on the academic level
" will also be paid to the teacher through a prize in his name, created at the initiative of the Association of History and Geography Teachers, which will be awarded to the fall 2022. For its first edition, schoolchildren will be invited to submit a project, on any type of medium, answering the question: "are
we always free to express ourselves?"
".