Triumph (re-)Imagined: Saddam’s Monument to Victory

Van de Ven, Annelies [UCL]

National narratives are not rootless; they are located in time as well as space.1 They are also not neutral, and each one carries within it a specific interpretation of the past, its literary and material remains, that is often focused on a particular territorial entity or cultural group. These interpretations form the basis for a national myth and they are incorporated into state ideologies to create a common national identity. The governing bodies of national and cultural groups can reform these historical sites, figures and events as tools to support a desired sense of identity. Through assessing how official interpretations of history are displayed in the public sphere through speeches, monuments or museum displays, we can begin to recreate these narratives and their processes of formation and revision. In this paper, I attempt to show this process using Saddam Hussein’s Victory Arch in Baghdad.