Who “owns” mourning? A discussion of memory, space, and community

In this seminar, Huw Halstead and Sebastian Owen from the CModS’ Memory Studies Group will discuss the creation of competition and community in the representation of mourning, using material excerpted from their research on the Greek diaspora and war poetry respectively. The material will be varied and accessible, and designed to instigate an informal conversation on some of the following issues:

• In what ways do communities take ownership of suffering?
• What happens when one group represents the suffering of another?
• Does remembering one trauma require another to be sidelined, or can the juxtaposition of suffering create new communities of solidarity?