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Edensor T, 1997, "National identity and the politics of memory: remembering Bruce and Wallace in symbolic space" Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 15(2) 175 – 194
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National identity and the politics of memory: remembering Bruce and Wallace in symbolic space

Tim Edensor

Received 17 March 1996; in revised form 30 September 1996

Abstract. In this paper, I examine the different and competing practices throughwhich symbolic places, and the events and figures they commemorate, arewoven into national memories. By exploring the semiotic, commercial, expert,narrative, and bodily practices of remembrance that centre upon Bannockburnand the Wallace Monument, in Stirling, Scotland, I highlight the complexways in which forms of remembrance are currently proliferating and fragmenting. I then move on to discuss how the common themes in these shifting politics of social remembering have been echoed in popular responses to the Hollywood film Braveheart, which celebrates Wallace. Iconclude by looking at how these practices of remembrance indicate thecontemporary unstable and contested condition of national identity.

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