Waterloo - Representation and Memory, 1815 - 2015
In June 2015 the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo will be marked by a series of major commemorative events in Belgium and across Europe. At the end of this eventful month the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York in co-operation with the National Army Museum will host a major international and interdisciplinary conference Waterloo: Representation and Memory, 1815-2015.
The conference will not only focus on what (military) historians have written about the battle but will also engage with its broader impact on popular culture, literature, and art. Waterloo is salient in European collective memory because it signifies the culmination of a twenty-three-year conflict that some consider the "first total war" (David A. Bell) and set the stage for various other novel phenomena that included, but were not limited to, the rise of modern nationalism, imperialism, and mass tourism during the nineteenth century.
In examining cultures of commemoration, the conference seeks to explore a theme that has come to define Waterloo like no other battle: the problem of representation. From the start opinions diverged as to who ultimately defeated Napoleon, yet the multinational team effort behind the allied victory created mnemonic convergences that would likewise shape European identities into the First World War.
Drawing together academics, broadcasters and museum curators, the conference organisers invite the submission of paper proposals that shed light on the ways in which entrepreneurs of memory made sense of Waterloo through different cultural media in the past and show how the relics of Europe's warlike traditions inform heritage preservation/public history in the present.
Papers might explore:
- Literary, artistic, theatrical, cinematic and televisual representations of Waterloo
- The political uses of the battle Waterloo and local, regional, and national identities
- Waterloo veterans and cultures of commemoration
- Waterloo and the military memoir
- Waterloo in global memory
- Waterloo tourism and souvenirs
- Waterloo and the First World War
- Children and Waterloo
- Waterloo and the culture of battle re-enactment
- Waterloo military culture and the museum
- Heritage management and Waterloo
Please send paper abstracts of no more than 300 words to: waterloomemory@gmail.com
Further information will be appearing at: www.york.ac.uk/eighteenth-century-studies/events/conferencebattleofwaterloo
Conference Venue: The Kings Manor, University of York, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EP, UK
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Contact:
Jasper Heinzen
Vanbrugh College
Department of History
University of York
Heslington
York YO10 5D
UK
+44 1904 322936