The nation remembers: national identity and shared memory in television documentaries

Abstract. This article explores the impact of recent trends towards globalisation on the ways in which national identity and ‘shared memory’ find expression in the media. Concentrating on television documentaries produced through international co‐ productions, I show how national consciousness became a key ideological component in the construction of televised narratives. This illustration will be made through the examination of a particular co‐produced television documentary, The Fifty Years War. To make this programme possible, funding from three television networks was secured, with each source given the right to use the produced footage to construct its own version of the final product. The completed series thus exists in three distinct versions, British (BBC2), American (PBS) and Middle Eastern (MBC). Since the final product of this co‐production was split into several national/cultural versions, the content of the different national/cultural projects became translated into different presentations of ‘reality’. In analysing the similarities and differences among the three end‐products, this article offers some reflections regarding the three‐sided interplay between television, shared memory and national identity in an age of globalisation.     

Chronicles and historiography: the interrelationship of fact and fiction

Notwithstanding the great progress in medieval historiography during the last century, a conceptual and methodological basis in regard to the analysis of narrative sources is still missing. This paper indicates some of the challenges posed by fourteenth-century chronicles while focusing on contemporary testimonies about Clement V, pope between 1305 and 1314. Discussion of the different testimonies allows drawing some conclusions and paves the way for a new approach to medieval narrative sources.     

Crossing the rubicon: fact or fiction in Roman re-enactment

Abstract

This paper discusses the role and use of Roman re-enactment as a means of engaging with, visualizing and interpreting Roman material culture, and how this is translated into presentation material for public display. The paper raises several issues on the use of re-enactors to interpret a specific period from the past, and reflects on why people actively participate in re-enactment, with an emphasis on accuracy and authenticity.