‘And those who live, how shall I tell their fame?’ Historical pageants, collective remembrance and the First World War, 1919-39

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the First World War was represented in historical pageants during the interwar period. Pageants in this period are often overlooked as sites of commemoration and dramatic representation. Three types of pageant are identified: those that portrayed the war hyper-realistically, those which relied on symbolism and allegory to convey messages about war and peace, and those which sought to incorporate the war into the longer histories of the communities whose pasts they depicted. The article argues that 'traditional' forms of representation of the past proved to be resilient features of popular commemoration and remembrance.

‘An Epic Tale of England’: Atmospheric authentication of nationalist narratives

“…As pageant, Kynren is a form of ‘spectacular theatre’ (Wallis, 1994: 148), the power of which comes as much if not more from the aesthetic pleasure of the spectacle as from its content. Such pageants have often been arenas for popular retellings of national stories (Bartie et al., 2017), and Kynren continues such traditions. While public pageantry has often been described as ‘backward-looking and conservative’ (Bartie et al., 2019: 156), they also note that across history the purveyors of pageants have claimed their unifying cross-class appeal, and that such simplistic readings should be avoided.…”

Repertoires of remembrance: violence, commemoration and the performing arts

“…4 For instance, in the section of Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning entitled 'Cultural Codes and Languages of Mourning', Jay Winter (1995) turns from physical monuments to other forms of art; however, despite the section's talk of 'codes' and 'language' that imply embodied activity, the subjects of Winter's investigation (film, visual art, literature, and poetry) are written about as abstract locations for memory and mourning rather than active processes. An alternative approach that focuses on embodied processes of theatrical re-enactment is outlined by Bartie et al (2017). created by performers and audiences working with materials (whether sonic, textual, gestural, or other).…”

Children, Internationalism, and Armistice Commemoration in Britain, 1919–1939

“…Particular attention is devoted to the liberal internationalism of the LNU, the largest internationalist voluntary association in Britain in the interwar years. Through annual Armistice Day messages for schoolchildren from the LNU, editorials and resources in teachers' periodicals, and through meetings, plays, and pageants held in drawing rooms, school halls, cinemas, and parks across Britain, liberal internationalists presented armistice commemoration as part of a much longer narrative of national history, which included the First World War (Bartie et al 2017). Such a narrative also envisaged a future without the loss and suffering on a global scale of that conflict.…”