Mobilizing Memory: Cultural Trauma and the Centenary of World War I Intergenerational Theatre Projects

Lorek-Jezioska examines British celebrations of the centenary of World War I in interactive theatre and artistic projects, focusing on their function in constructing and reviving the cultural trauma. She investigates strategies for including the younger generation in centenary celebrations and commemorations strategies based on mobilizing participants' compassion, empathy and readiness to become the medium of testimony. In this way the third memory boom stimulated by the centenary revives the intergenerational relations that formed the basis of the earlier World War I memory boom, additionally including social groups that had previously been disregarded or excluded from this process.