Sites Of Mourning: An Analysis

Like several previous books, Jay Winter’s Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European cultural history also challenged the traditional thinking on the Great War as the watershed moment in the twentieth century. In his book, Winter argued that although the modern forms could help people to express anger and despair through delivering a multi-faceted sense of dislocation, paradox, and irony, they were incapable of healing people. Instead, the traditional literary forms of the Victorian and Edwardian eras could mediate bereavement more effectively. The transformation from traditional to modern mourning form was gradual instead of instant. The strong will of bereaved mourners to seek solace promoted the resurgence of traditional modes, which included the aesthetic expression (classic, romantic and religious themes of the past) and the realistic depiction of the war because they enabled a connection to be built …show more content…
These cultural expressions, including literary works, painting, film and poetry, were collectively used to connect the deceased with their surviving relatives and emerged widely in the postwar period. Among all cultural forms that were raised by Winter, the reference to spiritualism was interesting because it was much more abstract. By narrating the stories of people, who claimed to witness the spirits of dead soldiers hanging above the living and even made money from such claims, Winter further confirmed that the continuation of traditional mourning forms did not disappear following the end of the Great War. However, the war broke up the usual implementation of the traditional mourning process and led to the loss of the feeling of closure. Thus, desiring to rebuild the connection with the deceased, they relied more on