The role of the WW1 commemorations in the national mythmaking
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Archaeology
Abstract
The aim of the proposed research is to access the ways in which the commemoration of the WWI was used by forming, strengthening or transforming
the national myths for political aims and can be traced in the late 20th and early 21st-centuries Europe. WWI was a dramatic and politically defining
event in the history of the continent that still provides a springboard for the commemoration of later conflicts and shaping of national identities. The events of the centenary moved crowds in Western Europe, while the moderated celebration in Eastern Europe is also meaningful. The dissertation aims to reveal the differences of the national mythmaking derived from the WWI heritage in the traditional Western European democracies and the post-socialist countries. While the commemorations are integrated into existing national myths, they can also develop and transform these myths, since the traumatic experience of a war intensifies the nationalist feelings, which in turn encourages mythmaking. Therefore, the seemingly harmless, mournful or majestic practices of war commemorations carry the possibility of a misuse by the groups with extremist viewpoints. The examples of the comparison would come from the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic and Hungary, since they represent four different angles of the same war. The research will apply an interdisciplinary methodology on the heritage sites: discourse and content analyses, visual methods, geoinformatics and ethnographic research.
the national myths for political aims and can be traced in the late 20th and early 21st-centuries Europe. WWI was a dramatic and politically defining
event in the history of the continent that still provides a springboard for the commemoration of later conflicts and shaping of national identities. The events of the centenary moved crowds in Western Europe, while the moderated celebration in Eastern Europe is also meaningful. The dissertation aims to reveal the differences of the national mythmaking derived from the WWI heritage in the traditional Western European democracies and the post-socialist countries. While the commemorations are integrated into existing national myths, they can also develop and transform these myths, since the traumatic experience of a war intensifies the nationalist feelings, which in turn encourages mythmaking. Therefore, the seemingly harmless, mournful or majestic practices of war commemorations carry the possibility of a misuse by the groups with extremist viewpoints. The examples of the comparison would come from the United Kingdom, France, the Czech Republic and Hungary, since they represent four different angles of the same war. The research will apply an interdisciplinary methodology on the heritage sites: discourse and content analyses, visual methods, geoinformatics and ethnographic research.
People |
ORCID iD |
Liliana Janik (Primary Supervisor) | |
Andrea Kocsis (Student) |
Publications
Kocsis A
(2019)
Archaeology of Identity and Dissonance: Contexts for a Brave New World
in Archaeological Review from Cambridge
Studentship Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ES/P000738/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2027 | |||
1946655 | Studentship | ES/P000738/1 | 30/09/2017 | 30/03/2021 | Andrea Kocsis |
Title | Review of WWI play |
Description | I reviewed a play dealing with WWI memory. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | A wider audience could have engaged with current models of WWI. |
URL | https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2018/10/15/review-oh-what-a-lovely-war-114512 |
Description | The memory of the WWI in Paris was controlled entirely by the political and military leadership, which intentionally tried to keep the narratives of a "real war" (loss, suffer, injury) or power challenging narratives (pacifism, communism, etc.) away from the capital in order not to cause more instability in this politically really responsive community. The impact of this pattern is clearly visible on the Parisian cityscape and memorialscape. It resulted in commemorative places created for commanders and state leaders within the city, and dismissed the counter-memories of the bereaved or veterans. These commemorative places were strategically located in the city forming a military axis within the capital, and this axis touched on different memory districts articulating around the allied relations and preceding conflicts. |
Exploitation Route | The results are part of the MPhil in Heritage Studies curriculum at the University of Cambridge, in Paper G24:Special Topics in Heritage Studies. |
Sectors | Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
Description | Giving lectures about my award topic |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | I was giving lectures to Mphil in Heritage Studies students at the University of Cambridge on my research award results and also on the model I have developed. |
Description | Senior Members' Scholarship |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Cambridge |
Department | Wolfson College |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2017 |
End | 09/2020 |
Title | Digital Humanities methods in WWI research |
Description | During my research, I developed an interdisciplinary methodology to merge archive research, natural language processing and GIS research to discover the so far hidden narratives in the WWI memory. |
Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | With this method, I discovered a so far hidden pattern in the spread of the WWI memorials in Paris which pointed out a so far overlooked intentional political action against specific memory groups during the interwar period. I have presented this method at the last Memory Studies Association Conference in Madrid in 2019. |
Description | ESRC Internship at BT |
Organisation | BT Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | I am an ESRC intern at BT working on a project which aims to understand the spread of fake news on social media. During the six months of my internship, I am going to create a program that recognises the 5g misinformation on Twitter. The results and the software are planned to be presented at one of the IEEE Conferences. |
Collaborator Contribution | BT provides me with weekly consultations and training needs. |
Impact | It is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between computer sciences, media studies and social sciences. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Blogpost marking David Lowenthal's death |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I made the official comment of my Department on the passing of the founder of our research field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/publications/spotlight-on/Lowenthal |
Description | Cambridge Heritage Research Centre Bulletin |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I am the editor of the newsletter of my Research Centre in which I have published some summaries of my own research, as well as, update the people interested in our work about the latest news in the field. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020 |
URL | https://www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/publications/bulletin |
Description | Institutional blog post: Interpreting the site of a 700 years old massacre |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Blogging about heritage-related topics drove the attention to sensitive issues related to frequently visited touristic sites. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.heritage.arch.cam.ac.uk/publications/spotlight-on/spotlight-on-clifford-tower |
Description | Interview for my former University media |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | I gave an interview about my research to the media of my former University in Hungary |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://media.elte.hu/blog/2018/05/29/egyszerre-gondolkodom-tortenelmen-regeszeten-es-median-interju... |