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Nationalism and war commemoration – a L atin A merican exceptionalism?
Author(s) -
Hau Matthias
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8129.2012.00559.x
Subject(s) - nationalism , exceptionalism , narrative , agency (philosophy) , scholarship , spanish civil war , collective memory , politics , sociology , law , political science , social science , literature , art
Recent scholarship on collective memory and nationalism in L atin A merica argues that – in sharp contrast to E urope – war commemoration has been of little importance to the memory work of states in the region. The article challenges this claim. A comparative‐historical analysis of school textbooks and school ceremonies in twentieth‐century M exico, A rgentina and P eru reveals that the commemoration of major civil and international wars was central to official national narratives in these countries. The article further identifies important qualitative changes in war commemoration over time, especially with respect to how commemorative discourses portrayed agency and assigned responsibility for military victories and losses. These changes are situated within broader transformations of nationalism and new alignments in the politics of nationhood and memory.