Explorando l arte kandinsky biography

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Séverine Sofio (S. S.): ou are a specialist in cultural history. Could you start by briefly introducing this speciality within French history?

Julie Verlaine (J. V.): Cultural history originates, on the one hand, from the “history of mentalities,” introduced by Georges Duby and Maurice Agulhon, and, on the other, from political history, as it was revisited in the 1990s by scholars such as Pascal Ory and Jean-François Sirinelli, following René Rémond. It is the encounter between these two historiographical traditions that led to the emergence of what we now call “cultural history.” It is a social history of collective representations and sensitivities: its goal is to retrace the history of actors and bearers of collective representations, which we group under the umbrella term of “culture” (by which we mean, implicitly, “common” culture). It entails the study of ideas and objects, of both “popular” and “elitist” culture. Its main focus lies in social norms and value systems (what is beautiful/what is ugly, what is pure/what is impure…), and, in particular, in taste and the imaginary: how are t