Colloquium: National Memories, Witnesses and World War Two

February 22, 2018 HRi 0 Comments

Dunkirk: Embarkation of Wounded, May 1940 (Art.IWM ART LD 177) image: View over a heavily bombed site with large, hangar-like buildings with soldiers standing around in groups and some
lying on stretchers Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1590

National Memories, Witnesses and World War Two

A Public Colloquium

Friday, April 6, 2018, 3:00 p.m.

Ad-Hum 348

World War Two figures significantly in the collective memories of many nations around the world.  As the generation that experienced the war passes from the scene and as the war passes from participants’ memories into history, its remembrance is for certain nations a touchstone of national identity; in others it is a source of division and contestation.  This colloquium examines commemorative representations and controversies concerning World War Two in relation to the national memories of Britain, Spain and Korea, and in relation to the Holocaust.

Panel I: 3:00-4:10 p.m.

Marcel Decoste:  “Re-Framing the People’s War: Collective Memory, First-Hand History and the Terrible Democracy of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.”

Philip Charrier:  “Vanishing ‘Comfort Women’, Proliferating Memorials, and the Invention of the Resolute Victim. ”

Refreshments:  4:10-4:20 p.m.

Panel II:  4:20-5:30 p.m.

Ian Germani:  “Impostors and Historical Kitsch:  World War Two and the Pitfalls of Spain’s Memory Wars.”

Michael Trussler:  “A Half Moon Over Oswieçim.”

This colloquium is sponsored by the Humanities Research Institute and the Departments of History and English at the University of Regina.  All interested members of the public are welcome to attend.

Colloquium: National Memories, Witnesses and World War Two was last modified: February 22nd, 2018 by HRi