Idealising martyrdom and Jordanian militarism in the Martyr’s Memorial in Amman: A social semiotic approach

ABSTRACT

Since its inauguration in 1977, the Jordanian Martyr’s Memorial and Museum (called in Arabic Sarh Al-Shaheed) has gained symbolic status as the national army-museum. Its immense and distinctive architectural design, the arrangement of spaces and exhibits allow it to host large collections of exhibits which illustrate the history of modern Jordan, and show the development of its armed forces, and commemorates the sacrifices of the Jordanian soldiers. It is a major tourist site and considered a national educational and cultural. Using a social semiotic approach to reveal how the structure and its displays all realise an ideology where nation, culture, religion, and history become infused with militarism. Analysis reveals how symbolism, abstraction, and realism combine to document the actions of the Jordanian military.

KEYWORDS:

• Social semiotics
• spatial-texts
• martyr
• memorials
• museums
• Jordan

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the Martyr’s Memorial Administration for their generous cooperation and support during the fieldwork and for permitting collecting data from the different spaces of the Memorial. Additionally, the author extends his thanks to the anonymous reviewers and editors who provided helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 A Captain-pilot in the Royal Jordanian Air Force who was brutally executed by ISIS after been captured in Syria.

2 A Captain in the Jordanian Special Forces and was fallen in an anti-terrorist operation in Irbid (north of Jordan).

3 Available on AlRai newspaper website via https://bit.ly/38cMekx; accessed on 28th October, 2019

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ahmad El-Sharif

Ahmad El-Sharif is an Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English Language and Literature at Al-alBayt University, Jordan. He received his PhD in 2012 from Queen Mary-University of London, researching metaphorical language in Islamic religious discourse. El-Sharif is currently researching the spatial semiotics of several monuments and museums in Jordan, focusing in particular on how discourses and ideologies are communicated through spatial-texts. His other research interests include language and identity, cognitive linguistics, and CDA. He has written on, the language of the Prophetic Tradition, the discourse of social and political reform in Jordan, and the discourse of the Hashemite rulers of Jordan.