État présent : Dark Heritage

Auschwitz-Birkenau, as a site of extreme violence and atrocity during the Holocaust, has become a focal point for discussing 'dark heritage'—a concept that shifts focus from tourism to the broader cultural and memorial significance of such sites. This study argues that 'dark heritage' better captures the complex engagement with suffering and contested histories than does 'dark tourism,' which emphasizes leisure and visitor behavior. It examines how French and francophone scholars approach these sites, often through visual ethnographies like those by Jérémie Dres and Georges Didi-Huberman, which challenge official narratives and highlight personal and material encounters with heritage. The research also critiques the anglophone dominance of dark tourism studies and explores how memorial practices in France grapple with unresolved legacies, such as those tied to the slave trade or colonialism, without reducing them solely to tourist consumption.

Fuggle, S. (2020). État présent : Dark Heritage. French Studies, 74(3), 438–455. https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knaa144