Still fighting in the trenches: ‘War discourse’ and the memory of the First World War in Britain

Abstract

This article examines how the memory of the First World War (1914–1918) across Britain has been structured by the use of a specific ‘war discourse’. This means of communication draws upon the vast array of words, phrases and sayings that were popularised through the experience of large numbers of civilians in military service during the conflict. This lexicon has been subsequently incorporated into wider usage and retains a prominent place within cultural expression. However, rather than merely being used as an illustrative device, the ‘war discourse’ is employed to make specific references regarding both the past and the present within the political, media and public sphere, as issues of blame, responsibility and neglect are integral parts of its usage. Through the application of critical discourse analysis, the ‘war discourse’ can be observed as a significant means by which society remembers the Great War.

Football and the Military in Contemporary Britain

“…Remembrance itself is situated within broad tropes of British nationalism (Winter, 1995). The commemorating of the sacrifices made in successive World Wars is intimately connected to the victories in these conflicts (Wilson, 2015). The addition of successive wars to the litany of sacrifice serves also to incorporate them into this broad commemorative matrix (King, 2015).…”

Itineraries of the Great War and the rise of the local on the Western Front: Memory, commemoration and the shifting regimes of remembrance tourism

“…The front soon became a repository of ‘cultural memory’ and an important battlefield ‘tourism landscape’ in Europe (Wilson, 2011). More recently, however, with the demise of its direct survivors and the centenary commemoration of the conflict, a shift in the culture of Great War memory began to emerge, and new forms of memory-making and battlefield experiences have arisen (Price, 2005; Wilson, 2011, 2015)…”