War commemoration as an (Anti-)European radical past

Abstract

The article War commemoration as an (Anti-)European radical past explores how digital media and political narratives have transformed war commemoration, focusing on the interplay of memory, power, and media in shaping public perceptions of history. Hedwig Wagner applies Michel Foucault’s concept of the dispositive to war commemoration, emphasizing how digital platforms, like social media, act as tools for shaping collective memory and public discourse. The article critically addresses how modern political figures, particularly Vladimir Putin, misuse historical memory, like that of World War II, to justify the current war. This article tackles with German quality journalism, particularly in outlets like Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Die Zeit, and Der Spiegel, offering a counter-discourse, opposing revisionist history and emphasizing a European memory culture aimed at combating such manipulations. The section "Radical Past," examines how the digital age has fundamentally altered our relationship with historical memory, particularly through the concept of the "radical past" proposed by Ford and Hoskins (2022). The immediacy and participatory nature of digital platforms create a constant recontextualization of the past, where historical events like World War II are invoked in contemporary conflicts, such as Russia’s war against Ukraine. In the conclusion, it is emphasized that war commemoration in the digital era operates as a Foucauldian dispositive, a complex system where power, memory, and media intersect, shaping both public discourse and individual perceptions of history.

Keywords:
Russo-Ukrainian war; historical narratives; radical past (Ford and Hoskins, 2022); European memory culture; Foucauldian dispositive; German online journalism