The Empire Strikes Back: Memory, Meaning, and the Falklands War

William R. McLachlan, The University of Western Ontario

Abstract

This thesis examines the spectacularization and commodification of the Falklands War. With the dispatching of a Royal Navy task force to the South Atlantic, following the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982, came an orgy of patriotism that was expressed by Britons through public spectacles and the production of related commodities. Britishness, which became synonymous with the existence of the British Empire, was in crisis during the decades of decolonization after the Second World War and saw the reaction of an imperial nostalgia. The celebrations and commemorations that took place after the British victory on 14 June 1982, ultimately echoed the popular imperialism of the late Victorian Era. Through the use of imperial sights, sounds, and sentiments, the British seamlessly returned to the imperial shorthand they used to celebrate and commemorate British military victories in the past.