Exhuming Passions

Public disputes over memory and the uses of the past have become a customary feature of contemporary culture. Debates about wartime resistance, apologies for slavery and abuse, and the entrenchment of a national historical 'canon' in schools have been sparked by recent anniversaries of historical events. Ireland and Australia represent two case studies that are often singled out for their peculiar brand of bitterly disputed remembrance. This volume brings together 18 Irish and Australian scholars from the disciplines of history, anthropology, politics, literary criticism, sociology, and film studies, to reconsider their respective national cultures of remembrance in the light of parallel developments on the other side of the world. The essays discuss how narratives of trauma, victimhood and loss have manifested themselves in contemporary Irish and Australian remembrance.