The politics of mourning: The virtual memorialisation of British fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan

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20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article analyses the virtual memorialisation of British fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will study online obituaries published on two websites – BBC news and The Lasting Tribute. These sources are compared as examples of media-driven and community-driven memorialisation. This comparison enables us to study links between the mainstream media and the functioning of digital network communities, between public and private discourses of war memorialisation. The purpose of analysis is twofold: first, the article examines how virtual memorials represent fatalities, and, second, it discusses the political implications of virtual memorialisation. The article posits that although virtual memorials introduce professionalised and personalised accounts of the deaths of service personnel, they also enable a nationalistic discourse of war commemoration, and shape the politics of mourning in modern Britain.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)267-281
Number of pages14
JournalMemory Studies
Volume8
Issue number3
Early online date30 Dec 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Bettina Renz, Alex Danchev and Laura Todd for their valuable comments on the draft of this article. I am most grateful to the comments of the two anonymous reviewers and editors.

Funding
This research received a support from an Overseas Research Scholarship and a Postdoctoral Bursary of the Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Nottingham (2008–2012; 2012–2013).

Keywords

  • war
  • military
  • memory
  • Afghanistan
  • British soldiers
  • grief
  • Iraq
  • politics of mourning
  • virtual memorials

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