Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Darren KelseyORCiD
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE The ‘Blitz spirit’ is a popular story about Britain during the Second World War; the country uniting together with defiance to overcome the threat of invasion from Nazi Germany. This paper approaches the Blitz spirit as a myth before a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) examines how this myth was retold in British newspapers after the July 7th bombings. I firstly analyse Blitz spirit discourses that evoked unity between Britain and America in the war on terror. I then argue that evocations of this myth became more complex, often criticising Tony Blair for his moral incompatibility with Second World War or Churchillian analogies. Both discursive positions featured a myth that remembers and forgets details in a popular story from the past. This paper argues that whilst the Blitz spirit was a problematic feature of post-July 7th media, it did not serve one ideological purpose. Through a nuanced approach to Roland Barthes’ model of myth, I argue that an ideological battleground occurred when a myth from the 1940s recurred in 2005.
Author(s): Kelsey D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines
Year: 2012
Volume: 6
Issue: 1
Pages: 23-37
ISSN (electronic): 1752-3079
Publisher: CADAAD
URL: http://cadaad.net/volume_6_issue_1/81-77
