Selective Empathy in the Re-designed Imperial War Museum London: Heroes and Perpetrators

Koureas, Gabriel

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96785-1_10

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Important issues include how commemorations of the military past affect perceptions of threats and security (Heath-Kelly 2020; Reeves 2018b) and how contemporary military conflicts and security discourses inform the ways in which cultural memories are produced (Danilova 2015;Gustafsson 2014;Welland 2017). Investigating discursive representations as well as spatial, visual, and acoustic arrangements, research also analyzes how security narratives become embodied and felt at war museums and memorials and how such affective framings condition critical reflection and (political) agency (Daugbjerg 2017;Koureas 2018;Reeves 2018a). However, as Ayşe Gül Altınay and Andrea Pető observe (2016, 6), this field largely lacks a gender perspective: "the particular intersection between war/militarism, gender, and memory…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, memories, and national security: the making of a Cold War military heritage

Åse

her

hers³

et al. 2021

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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Cold War military remnants and experiences have recently been turned into museums and tourist attractions in many European countries. Recognizing such memory making as essentially political, we examine the role of gender and sexuality in the making of a Cold War military heritage. Combining critical feminist and intersectional Cold War research with gender perspectives on military memory, this article contributes to feminist conceptualizations of the relationship between gendered security and the production of memory. By highlighting narratives and spatial, visual, and acoustic arrangements, we investigate state-sponsored museum displays of two national security crises in the Swedish context: the 1952 Soviet downing of a DC-3 airplane and the submarine hunts in the Baltic Sea in the early 1980s. The analysis reveals how gender works to construct a geopolitical outlook, enable emotional identifications, and restore national order. Heterosexuality and hierarchical gender norms emerge as prerequisites for national security. We argue that when visitors are encouraged to feel gendered national security, opportunities to critically reflect upon Cold War histories decrease, promoting the depoliticization of security politics and militarism.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender, memories, and national security: the making of a Cold War military heritage

Åse

her

hers³

et al. 2021

International Feminist Journal of Politics

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Gendered Frames of Violence in Military Heritagization: The Case of Swedish Cold War History

Wendt

2021

Journal of War & Culture Studies

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How are opportunities to critically reflect upon military violence and militarization shaped by museal representations of a country's military history? Inspired by a critical heritage perspective and feminist international relations research, this article contributes to the scholarly discussion of the political implications of military memory making. The aim is to analyse how military violence is framed in official heritagization of the Cold War period in Sweden. Based on fieldwork at three military museums, the article discusses how framings of violence affect opportunities to politically and ethically engage with military issues and the use of force. A central question concerns how gender underpins representations of violence at the museums and how this gendering affects politicization. The analysis discloses that military violence is framed as sacred sacrifice, as 'pure' technology, as play and as (male) omnipotence. The argument made is that such gendered frames obscure and depoliticize problematic aspects of military violence.

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Selective Empathy in the Re-designed Imperial War Museum London: Heroes and Perpetrators

Cited by 2 publications

References 2 publications

Gender, memories, and national security: the making of a Cold War military heritage

Gender, memories, and national security: the making of a Cold War military heritage

Gendered Frames of Violence in Military Heritagization: The Case of Swedish Cold War History

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