International research project Project director : Prof. Karen Hagemann The project is intended to examine these experiences and memories of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the European nations and regions involved in a long-term perspective. 1945 will be the end point of the analysis because the end of World War II and the Holocaust mark a sharp break in the history of political culture and memory all over Europe. The main focus of analysis will be on the images and narratives that formed war experiences and memories and therefore collective identities all over Europe. Of central interest is the construction of ‘the self' and ‘the other' through the drawing of boundaries defined in national, regional, social or cultural terms. The assumption is that the network of (trans)national and regional images and narratives that derived from the early period of modern world-wide war had long lasting effects on the political culture of Europe in general and the relations of nations and regions in particular. The most important sources for the analysis of war experiences will be letters, diaries and war memories produced during and shortly after the war. For the analysis of memories the most widespread media and therefore source-materials appear to be (next to poetry, plays and visual representations) printed autobiographies and war memories, commemorative books, historical novels and, in the twentieth century, films. |
