IRRC No. 910
Cultural memory and identity in the context of war: Experiential, place-based and political concerns
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Abstract
Remembrance of war and conflict exposes the intricate interweaving of cultural
memory and identity. Nations commemorate war to link narratives of the past
with the present. This linking creates shared national narratives that temporally
reinforce identities across the geography of the nation and among diverse citizenry.
In this paper, the authors turn their attention towards the experiential and placebased
concerns of the politics of memory within the context of war. It is argued
that through attentiveness to individual experience we can better understand how
cultural memory is enveloped into constructions of identity and critique such
constructions alongside official narratives.