Commemorating Muslims in the First World War Centenary: Making Melancholia

The book explores how national memory changes when it seeks to include a previously excluded group, such as Muslims, during the First World War centenary. It identifies three distinct narratives that correspond to three ways of situating Muslims in relation to the nation: mourning, mobilization, and melancholia. It intervenes in debates surrounding memory, nationhood, and belonging to make sense of the centenary as an extended exercise in nation-building.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 182 pages
Publication date: 25 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Commemorating Muslims in the First World War Centenary explores the surge of public commemorations in Britain and France during the centenary of the First World War, alongside the heightened visibility of British and French Muslims in political and popular discourse. By bringing these two phenomena together, the book examines how national memory evolves when it seeks to include a previously excluded group. Through an analysis of three distinct narratives that correspond to three ways of situating Muslims in relation to the nation—mourning, mobilization, and melancholia—it intervenes in debates surrounding memory, nationhood, and belonging. With a particular focus on sites of melancholia, the author demonstrates how certain sites disrupt national memory and fail to produce a cohesive narrative to mend what has been fractured. This book offers an exploration of how commemoration forces nations to confront their past and present, without offering a tidy solution. It will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and memory studies, as well as those interested in nationalism and postcolonial studies.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367551865