Gender, community and the memory of the Second World War occupation of the Channel Islands
This thesis examines the construction of frames of Second World War memory in the post-occupation Channel Islands, and considers the impact of gender on both this memory-making process and the resulting popular representations of their shared past. It first explores the gendered tensions and fractures of the occupation years, and their role in the construction of this usable past. The occupation will be shown to have directly challenged the traditional gendered expectations of British wartime conduct (a key tenet of Islander identity), particularly regarding martial masculinity and feminine virtue. These tensions and fractures were particularly acute in the Channel Islands, as they were the only British territory to be occupied by German forces during the Second World War, having been demilitarised prior to the invasion of 1940. The war memories that were popularly adopted by the Islander communities after the war were, therefore, rooted in these early tensions and fractures, as they sought out retribution, closure, and unity, along with a connection to the desirable British war memory and the image of the victorious soldier hero. This thesis examines how this traumatic period has been built into a necessary
Watkins, Nicolle
D731 World War II ; DA Great Britain ; HQ The family. Marriage. Women
Gender, community and the memory of the Second World War occupation of the Channel Islands. This thesis examines the construction of frames of Second World War memory in the post-occupation Channel Islands, and considers the impact of gender on both this memory-making process and the resulting popular representations of their shared past. It first explores the gendered tensions and fractures of the occupation years, and their role in the construction of this usable past. The occupation will be shown to have directly challenged the traditional gendered expectations of British wartime conduct (a key tenet of Islander identity), particularly regarding martial masculinity and feminine virtue. These tensions and fractures were particularly acute in the Channel Islands, as they were the only British territory to be occupied by German forces during the Second World War, having been demilitarised prior to the invasion of 1940. The war memories that were popularly adopted by the Islander communities after the war were, therefore, rooted in these early tensions and fractures, as they sought out retribution, closure, and unity, along with a connection to the desirable British war memory and the image of the victorious soldier hero. This thesis examines how this traumatic period has been built into a necessary
gender community memory second_world_war occupation channel_islands examine construction frame second_world_war memory post occupation channel_islands considers_impact gender memory making process result popular representation share past first_explore gendered tension fracture occupation year role construction usable past occupation show directly challenge_traditional gendered expectation british wartime conduct key tenet islander identity particularly_regard martial masculinity feminine virtue tension fracture particularly acute channel_islands british territory occupied german force second_world_war prior invasion war_memory popularly adopt islander community war therefore root early tension fracture sought retribution closure unity along connection desirable british war_memory image victorious soldier hero examines traumatic period build necessary