“Decentering Commemorations”: Literary, Cultural, Historical and Political Commemorations across and beyond the British Isles.
“Decentering Commemorations”:
Literary, Cultural, Historical and Political Commemorations across and beyond the British Isles
EJES Guest Editors for the issue 24 (2020): Antonella Braida-Laplace, Jeremy Tranmer and Céline Sabiron
At a time of crisis concerning Europe’s identity and ideals, commemorations are not only intended as a nation-building process. They can also be appropriated by various actors at national, regional, and local levels, such as cultural institutions, political parties and social media. Increasing mobility and instability trigger off tendencies to go back to the past, to search for one’s roots and to emphasise the importance of heritage. Governments and lobbies/corporations such as Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple use landmarks to impose their readings of political, cultural and literary events, while grassroot communities organise their own remembrance events or commemorate differently and sometimes more informally and spontaneously.
The years 2018 and 2019 mark multiple anniversaries that will be commemorated transnationally, including the Armistice (1918) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the events of May 1968 in France, women’s suffrage in the UK (1918), the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), the release of the Beatles’ album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) or the Woodstock Festival (1969). This EJES issue explores why and how these historical events, cultural productions and literary figures will be remembered across Europe. It intends to investigate in what ways and to what extent these commemorations are transferred from one cultural space to another, across and beyond the British Isles. It will also examine their transformations in the contemporary digital age and the shift towards new forms of democratic participation.
The editors invite proposals for articles dealing with transregional and/or transnational commemorations.Essays should account for the relationship between two or more regions or countries, one of which being the United Kingdom. Theoretical or practical approaches to the following topics from different disciplinary perspectives are welcomed:
· forms and modes of commemorating
- commemoration as an expression of soft power or a means of empowerment
- commemoration and technology in the digital age
- commemoration and cultural policies
- commemoration and hyphenated/conflicting identities (bi-nationals, and European nationals) in the UK due to Devolution and Brexit
- posterity and the literary canon
- literary and visual adaptations
- publishing policies
- commemorations as a way of asserting human rights
Detailed proposals (up to 1,000 words) for essays, as well as all inquiries regarding this issue, should be sent to all three editors by 30 November 2018:
Antonella Braida-Laplace: antonella.braida-laplace@univ-lorraine.fr
Jeremy Tranmer: jeremy.tranmer@univ-lorraine.fr
Céline Sabiron : celine.sabiron@univ-lorraine.fr
Antonella Braida-Laplace, Lecturer in English, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France. IDEA Research center.
Jeremy Tranmer, Lecturer in English, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France. IDEA Research center.
Céline Sabiron, Lecturer in English, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France. IDEA Research center.