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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Darren KelseyORCiD
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Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE This paper analyses the myth of the Blitz spirit in British newspaper responses to the London bombings on July 7th, 2005. The Blitz spirit is a popular story of Britain during the Second World War, uniting together with defiance and resilience to overcome the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany. Previous work has revised this wartime story as a propagandistic construction of national identity and popular memory thus containing the qualities of myth. This paper provides a Critical Discourse Analysis of the myth of the Blitz spirit in British newspapers after the July 7th bombings; I examine how this myth was constructed and the ideological role it played after the attacks. Similar to previous revisions of the Blitz myth from 1940, I argue that social and political complexities after July 7th were suppressed by messages that sought to evoke a sense of ‘Britishness’ defined by a previous generation. Whilst the July 7th bombings were not a case of traditional warfare or attacks carried out by a foreign force, I argue that wartime analogies often supported military responses in the war on terror and evoked a foreign threat.
Author(s): Kelsey D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Social Semiotics
Year: 2013
Volume: 23
Issue: 1
Pages: 83-99
Print publication date: 01/08/2012
ISSN (print): 1035-0330
ISSN (electronic): 1470-1219
Publisher: Routledge
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2012.707034
DOI: 10.1080/10350330.2012.707034
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