title: Mediating Militarism: Chronicling 100 Years of British ‘Military Victimhood’ During Periods of Remembrance, from Print to Digital 1918 – 2018
Creators: name: Markey, Liam
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2023

description: This thesis serves to address the potential role that the concept of ‘military victimhood’ has played in the mediation of militarism in Britain since 1918. Through the utilisation of a victimological ‘language’ and the adoption of a methodological approach centring on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a text sample consisting of digital and print materials obtained from the British Library’s archives is critically interrogated. Through this interrogation it is ascertained how discursive constructions of British military victimhood have potentially facilitated or challenged the proliferation of an ideology that sees war glorified, normalised, and justified through sanitisation of its violent reality over the last century (Mosse, 1990; Shaw, 1991). At the centre of this thesis is a seeming paradox concerning notions of militarism as mediated through British commemorative practices, which foreground military victims, and victimological perspectives on what characteristics and behaviour typify the ‘victim’, which sees military victims marginalised. With reference to the ‘ideal victim construct’ (Christie, 1986), the manner by which British military victimhood is constructed within commemorative discourse is explored, highlighting the similarities between both a militaristic ideology and normative social perspectives on the victim, particularly concerning gender roles. Demonstrated is how discursive constructions of military victimhood largely conform to the core tenets of the ideal victim construct, which foregrounds normative social notions of the victim as being a ‘feminine’ social actor, typified by weakness and passivity. Such constructions facilitate the mediation of a militaristic ideology, conforming to normative ideas concerning gender roles and their relationship to war. Reinforced here is the stereotypical identity of the military actor as an overtly brave and heroic individual, as an idealised form of masculinity (McCartney, 2011). While victimhood is addressed within ‘the 1919 model’ of British commemoration (Imber &amp; Fraser, 2011), it is done so through a highly selective depiction of military victims, ultimately serving to mediate militaristic ideals and values through a sanitising of its violent reality (Pennell, 2020). In turn, highlighted within commemorative discourse is the role of ‘deviancy’ and the potential for discursive constructions of military victimhood to influence the beliefs and behaviours of British social actors, particularly during the annual period of ‘Remembrancetide’, in a manner that further serves to normalise militaristic sentiments. Also demonstrated is how the concept of military victimhood, when articulated as part of a ‘counter’-narrative, can also serve to undermine militaristic notions of conflict as necessary or legitimate, highlighting rather than obscuring the violent reality of war and its power to victimise. The role of digital texts is emphasized here, establishing how the democratising nature of the internet provides an important space where cultures and perspectives on militarism in Britain are able to be actively exposed and resisted.