Endless conflict? Memory practices and material persistence of “14-18”
Harris, Trevor
Endless conflict? Memory practices and material persistence of “14-18” - 2023.
20
The Great War is seemingly a conflict without end. The “end” of the war, especially demobilisation, took a long time. As a result, numerous incidents, sometimes very violent, broke out among the British and Imperial armed services. The end of the war brought no sense of closure to many soldiers who were permanently marked by their war experience. CWGC commemoration further sought to prevent any forgetting of the war : the main aspects of this were a depersonalisation of remembrance, and the placing overseas of the war cemeteries. Such a method provoked much opposition among relatives of the war dead. The CWGC practice was conceived to emphasise the national character of the sacrifices made and to use the past to preserve a certain national self-image. Without dissolving the memory of the conflict, more recent commercial exploitation of memory of the war has begun to push this in a very different direction.
Endless conflict? Memory practices and material persistence of “14-18” - 2023.
20
The Great War is seemingly a conflict without end. The “end” of the war, especially demobilisation, took a long time. As a result, numerous incidents, sometimes very violent, broke out among the British and Imperial armed services. The end of the war brought no sense of closure to many soldiers who were permanently marked by their war experience. CWGC commemoration further sought to prevent any forgetting of the war : the main aspects of this were a depersonalisation of remembrance, and the placing overseas of the war cemeteries. Such a method provoked much opposition among relatives of the war dead. The CWGC practice was conceived to emphasise the national character of the sacrifices made and to use the past to preserve a certain national self-image. Without dissolving the memory of the conflict, more recent commercial exploitation of memory of the war has begun to push this in a very different direction.
Réseaux sociaux