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In a period characterised by an unprecedented cultural engagement with the past, individuals, groups and nations are¿debating and experimenting with commemoration in order to find culturally relevant ways of remembering warfare, genocide and terrorism.
This book examines such remembrances and the political consequences of these rites. In particular, the volume¿focuses on the ways in which recent social and technological forces, including digital archiving, transnational flows of¿historical knowledge, shifts in academic practice, changes in commemorative forms and consumerist engagements¿with history affect the shaping of new collective memories and our understanding of the social world.¿
Presenting studies of commemorative practices from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East, War Memory and Commemoration illustrates the power of new commemorative forms to shape the world, and highlights¿the ways in which social actors use them in promoting a range of understandings of the past. The volume will appeal¿to scholars of sociology, history, cultural studies and journalism with an interest in commemoration, heritage and/or¿collective memory.
List of contents
1. War Commemoration and the Expansion of the Past
Part 1: War Travels
2. ‘It was like swimming through history": Tourist Moments at Gallipoli
3. Western Tourism and Dialogical Remembering of the American War in Vietnam
4. Battlefield Tourism in Singapore: National Narratives and the State
Part 2: Commemoration and Eventness
5. Dawn Servers: Anzac Day 2015 and Hyper-Connective Commemoration
6. The Gallipoli Centenary: An International Perspective
7. 100 Days of Butchering: (Re)Presenting the Rwandan Genocide 20 Years On
8. Journalists and War Commemoration: Outlining Alternative Practices
Part 3: Genre and the Re-writing of War
9. Unconstrained by Accuracy: Commemorating the Khan Younis Massacre through a Comic
10. Broadening the Cultural Memory of War: Travel Writing
11. Reporting WWII North Africa: Disrupting Colonialism and Orientalism in Moorehead’s The Desert War
12. Anniversaries and Production of Fiction: Gallipoli
About the author
Brad West is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages at the University of South Australia. He is the author of Re-enchanting Nationalisms: Rituals and Remembrances in a Postmodern Age (2015).
Summary
This book examines remembrances and their political consequences, and focuses on the ways in which recent social and technological forces affect the shaping of new collective memories and our understanding of the social world.
