Commemorating War and War Dead

Book excerpt: Since Bouthoul's seminal work on polemology (1951), war studies have been increasingly influenced by sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis, memory studies, and even literary theory; while also weathering the storms of the cultural turn and, more generally, postmodernism. These are challenges that raised new questions, or offered new answers. How is war memorialized and commemorated? How do individuals react to war trauma? How are individual reactions and narratives implemented in collective thoughts, narratives and memories? How do societies remember wars, and how do these memories, in turn, affect political structures? How are public commemorations organized? These are some of the questions contemporary war studies are still engaged in. By presenting case studies both ancient and modern, from the ancient Greeks and Romans through medieval and modern times to contemporary history, this volume stimulates reflection on how and why individuals and societies remember and commemorate war.