A network of representations: Examining the German years of lead through a non-polarized reading of history

peer reviewedThe history of the representations of RAF terrorism is marked by uncountable instances of recycling, quotation and loan, all of which are corollaries of the « ageing » of images and sounds, as well as of the political and aesthetic distancing that this « ageing » implies. This history nevertheless questions the studies which usually define any hybridization of the representations of a historically charged period in terms of temporal evolution. Indeed, the constant use of images and sounds which have come to embody the German years of lead (e.g. the hostage Schleyer posing in front of the RAF logo) in fact appear prematurely, sometimes even simultaneously with the first broadcasting of the non-recycled, quoted or misused audiovisual material. By resolutely rejecting a linear model dependent on temporal evolution, this article aims to trace back the media exposure that favours these multiple uses, in order to demonstrate to what extent the actions of the RAF already partook of a complex network of quotations, reuses and borrowings