Asie 2015 LV1
How do words and/or images shape our memories of historical events? Give examples. (200 mots minimum)
Quelle expression traduit le fait que les mots écrits sont immuables ?
Quel verbe traduit l'idée de "transmission" ?
Quelle est la valeur donnée à l'adverbe "faithfully" ?
Quel risque est traduit par le mot "distorted" ?
Quel verbe est utilisé comme synonyme de "to protect" ?
In an increasingly digital world, both images and words tend to escape our memory rather than to be written in stone. It means that people forget about events be it short-term or long-term events.
I deeply believe that words and images may, on the contrary, be a way to preserve what we have experienced or what we have been told. Grand-parents, when they tell their grand-children about the war they have fought in their youth, make sure that their memories and personal experience will pass on through generations. In this way, memories will not be lost forever.
Images are equally efficient in order to preserve memories of historical events. In that respect, journalists, and in particular photographers, risk their lives so that we can witness historical events and, most of all, remember them.
When dealing with images, we must mention the power of the cinema industry. Indeed, it can be used to faithfully reenact historical events and thus provide viewers with a realistic vision of what actually happened at a time when images were not available.
The risk with images and words is that they may be distorted, used, falsified. They are extremely useful but their use requires some critical mind.