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A parricidal memory: Flanders’ memorial universe as product and producer of Belgian history

This article examines how the Belgian patriotic collective memory in Flanders during the 20th century was supplanted by a Flemish Nationalist counter memory. The article starts with a semiotic analysis of some concrete commemorative practices and discourses surrounding the brothers Van Raemdonck, two Flemish soldiers who died during the First World War and were venerated as Flemish heroes. Next, these cases are situated in some larger themes and tendencies dominating the intellectual construction of Flemish National collective memory during the 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, the success of these themes is related to the broader cultural, social and political context of Belgium. Through this widening perspective, the article shows not only that Flemish National collective memory was construed from within Belgian patriotic memory, but also that it profited from the weaknesses in the construction of the Belgian State to become the dominant ‘memorial universe’.