Parthenon Marbles Essay

The Parthenon marbles, also referred to as the Elgin marbles (After Lord Elgin, ambassador to the Ottoman court of the Sultan in Istanbul (1801-1812) include the collection of sculptures, inscriptions and architectural features acquired from the British government by Lord Elgin in 1816 and now exposed in the British museum in Duveen Gallery (Room 18). Under Elgin’s instructions, the marbles were removed from the Acropolis (the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, the Propylaia, and the Temple of Athena Nike) during his time as ambassador to the Ottoman court of the Sultan in Istanbul (1801-1812). The timeline (see graph 1) demonstrates various stages of the marbles since their creation in the 5th century BC which we consider relevant to the discussion …show more content…
Although we do not intend to discuss the use of social media for political activity per se our work contributes further to the studies that examine the role of, broadly defined, online communities for political debate. We take a critical approach and bring together analytical principles in line with Interactional Sociolinguistics and the Discourse Historical Approach (Wodak, 2006; Reisigl and Wodak 2009). In particular we aim to explore the ways in which the macro context becomes relevant to the situated here and now of talk and the argumentative strategies are mobilised by the interactants. We focus on the discursive processes through which the interlocutors negotiate and co-construct shared views and attempt to posit themselves in the current socio-historical macro and micro context. Special attention is paid to the discursive construction of cultural heritage and the core argumentative strategies employed in the process of commodification of the marbles in the CMD environment. We close the article with the implications of our findings, an overview of the value of the arguments as well as their resistance in time and directions for further