The Imperial Nature of the Australian National War Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux
The Australian National War Memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens and raised in 1938 on the site of the battle of Villers-Bretonneux in the Somme in France. This article examines the design and opening of the memorial in terms of how it raises the question of imperial belonging in the inter-war yea...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2012-12-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
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| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/erea/2830 |
| Summary: | The Australian National War Memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens and raised in 1938 on the site of the battle of Villers-Bretonneux in the Somme in France. This article examines the design and opening of the memorial in terms of how it raises the question of imperial belonging in the inter-war years. Through a discussion of the tradition of pro patria mori understood as imperial duty, as well as an examination of the debate between loyalism and emerging nationalism in Australia, the article seeks to elucidate what is so often forgotten in popular Anzac nationalism, namely, that it is associated with Dominion identity. |
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| ISSN: | 1638-1718 |