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C oventry —M emorializing P eace and R econciliation
Author(s) -
KaczkaValliere Jeanne,
Rigby Andrew
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.2008.00519.x
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , barbarism , narrative , representation (politics) , identity (music) , sign (mathematics) , sociology , law , boundary (topology) , media studies , history , political science , aesthetics , literature , art , mathematical analysis , mathematics , civilization , politics , computer science , programming language
Motorists and others coming into Coventry, a medium‐sized city in the center of the U.K., find themselves greeted by boundary markers that read “ Welcome to the City of Coventry: City of Peace and Reconciliation .” The sign points to a local collective and municipal identity that is grounded in a particular interpretation of the history of the city. This representation constitutes an example of the manner in which a city's experience of the barbarism of war has been used to create a “peace message.” The aim of this paper is to explain how this particular mode of memorializing past suffering for peaceful purposes came about and how the particular interpretation and narrative associated with the peace identity of the city was reproduced throughout the latter half of the last century.