ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how representations of the collective past are constructed and mobilised in interactions. The references to collective memory in parliamentary debates on immigration in France are analysed, and in particular, how the discourses of different political parties respond to each other. This chapter illustrates the uses made of historical representations in national politics, allowing the speakers to position themselves in the social field and to defend a certain understanding of society and who should be allowed to be a part of it. The analysis also highlights the co-construction of discourses on history, where the accounts of each political group echo the stories told by others, and thus the dialogical nature of historical representations.
