Your story is our story: Collective memory in obituaries of US military veterans

Abstract

Newspaper obituaries are carriers of collective memory, and researchers have found them to be a valuable source for discerning a society’s values. But obituaries are also about individuals, whose lives and identities they record—and for many people, they represent a unique instance in which their life story is told by a third party. In this article, I consider how collective memory of major public events is woven into the life stories told in obituaries by comparing recent obituaries of veterans of World War II and the Vietnam War. My findings suggest four interrelated ways that collective memory shapes these narratives: selection of defining life experiences, selection and emphasis of specific events and experiences, use of historical detail, and provision of cultural scripts. By influencing these components of the life stories told in obituaries, collective memory both occupies the narratives of individual veterans and maintains itself over time.

Older veterans: The materiality of reminiscence, making unknown histories knowable and forging social connections

“…In many instances their stories are told by others. For example, Taussig (2016) demonstrated how public events are woven into the individual life stories in obituaries of WWII and the Vietnam War American veterans. This (re)produced collective memory as events were carefully selected and defined, emphasizing certain details and cultural scripts.…”

“…Previous research has considered how materials associated with veterans might contribute to collective memory – where stories and values from the past are transmitted into and reinterpreted/rearticulated in the present, for example through war memorials or obituaries (Beckstead et al, 2011; Taussig, 2016). There is also research on service personnel’s amateur photography practices, particularly in spaces of war, and how photographs are used by others, for example in newspapers and exhibitions (Struk, 2011).…”

Dead evil? Constructing the ‘Terrorist’ in media obituaries

“…In doing all of this, obituaries reflect, reproduce and -potentially -contest social mores through which the significance of individual lives is evaluated (Starck 2005: 280;Fowler and Biesla 2007), in part via the "selection of life-defining experiences, selection and emphasis of specific events and experiences, use of historical detail, and provision of cultured scripts" (Taussig 2017). This, of course, raises significant editorial questions around inclusion and exclusion (Hamann 2016: 3) -the resolution of which varies across publication, spatial context and the passage of time (Árnason et al 2003;Fowler 2005;Starck 2005Starck , 2007.…”

Remembering lives, changing regimes: An analysis of Hungarian obituaries (1961–2000)

“…First, official narratives influence the content of biographical narratives appearing in obituaries. Major political events are incorporated and woven into the biographies described in the obituaries, as a research on war veterans by Taussig (2016) exemplifies. Second, official narratives also have an influence on the shape – the narrative structure – of the obituary.…”