The Television Channel ARTE as a Time Machine and Matrix for European Identity

Abstract

This chapter examines the French-German, European-oriented, cultural television channel ARTE and its roles as a ‘nostalgia policy maker’ and a ‘European identity contractor’ (Cohen, Dezalay and Marchetti, 2007). ARTE is no stranger to nostalgic trends. Over several years, ARTE featured a special summertime programme entitled the ‘Summer of…’ series. Launched in 2008, it revisited the past by playing musical hits from former decades. It began with ‘Summer of the Sixties’ (ARTE, 2013a), followed by ‘Summer of the Seventies’ (ARTE, 2013b) in 2009 and ‘Summer of the Eighties’ (ARTE, 2013c) in 2010. The 1990s being, perhaps, too close in time, the decision was made to discontinue the ‘decades’ theme and replace it with something more up to date. ‘Summer of the Girls’ came out in 2011 and ‘Summer of Rebels’ (ARTE, 2013e) in 2012. This sudden change illustrates the ambiguity of the nostalgic theme: where are the acceptable limits, especially in terms of time, of this sort of looking back? What content should be featured in trips back in time? How can these endeavours be successfully made relevant to the present? This example also raises the questions of what each ‘generation’ is all about (that of the 1960s, for instance) and, furthermore, which generation this type of programme is aimed at. This chapter studies the way ARTE functions as a ‘time machine’ by examining its policy of nostalgia within its concern for shaping European identity.