The politics of memory: Commemorating the centenary of the First World War

Abstract

This symposium examines how the centenary of the First World War has been marked in five countries: Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Given their distinctive national historical experiences and political cultures, the metanarratives of the war in these countries differ; as does the relationship between the state and sub-state actors in memory making. However, in each case the commemorations of the war have been shaped by a negotiation between the state and other agents of memory at the sub-state level. National memory has also been consciously projected into international relations, through carefully orchestrated anniversary ceremonies and performative memorial diplomacy. But, despite these transnational commemorative practices, the centenary of the war remains predominantly framed within local and national imaginings.

这次研讨会议论了一战百年在奥地利、法国、德国、英国、美国这五个国家是如何庆祝的。考虑到各国不同的历史经验以及政治文化，这些国家关于一战的元叙事各不相同，国家与次国家主体关系的记忆也是如此。不过，每个国家的战争纪念，都是国家与其他次国家层面主体协商的结果。通过精心策划的纪念仪式日以及表演性纪念外交，国家记忆被有意识地投射到了国际关系之中。除了这些跨国纪念活动，一战的记忆主要是在地方以及国家的想象框架内形成的。

Keywords:

• Anzac
• commemoration
• First World War
• national memory
• war memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The author is currently a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, Serving our Country: A History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Defence of Australia (see: <http://www.ourmobserved.com/>). Indigenous Australians engaging with this project clearly attach much value to official recognition of Indigenous defence service, although this service has been historically in defence of the state which was the agent of Indigenous disadvantage.

2 Russia is not a case study in this symposium in part because of its relatively limited engagement with the centenary of the First World War. As Professor Evgeny Sergeev, of the Russian Academy of Sciences has said, ‘The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of Bolshevism and the Soviet Union means that the First World War – labeled an ‘imperialist war' by Lenin – has been somewhat overshadowed’ (cited in Centenary News 2013). Nonetheless on 1 August 2014, the centenary of the declaration of war by Germany on Russia, a monument to the First World War was installed in Moscow. A total of three sculptures to the war were also unveiled across the country (Euronews 2014).