Nation, Memory, Myth

In Nation, Memory, Myth, Steve Vizard brings an original perspective to the foundational myth of Gallipoli as a sacred bearer of Australian national values and identity. In this scrupulously researched close reading of the Gallipoli mythology, Vizard dissects the elements common to all national myths that transform them into compelling symbolic, performances of cultural memory and kinship, unpicking the tensions and explaining the ambiguities embodied within. Nation, Memory, Myth offers the reader a challenging new look at the extraordinary vitality of myth as a unifying force that generates meaning for a nation and its citizens. Only by understanding myth's evolution across time and by disentangling it from history, memory and forgetting, can we begin to sense what an Australia in the twenty-first century may mean.