The heritage of Dunkerque : A socio historical, contextual, and textual analysis of Christopher Nolan’s mediation of cultural memory and creation of identity in Dunkirk 

This study aims to analyse the mediation of cultural memory in Christopher Nolan’s newest production Dunkirk. Furthermore, the audiences are supposed to identify and create meaning from cultural memories they have not inherited. This problem will therefore be analysed in relation to the mediation of cultural memory. A critical discourse analysis will mark the cornerstone of a methodical analysis model, followed by a semiotic textual analysis. Both the discourse and semiotic analysis will be preceded by a socio historical theory of contemporary ideology. Dunkirk assumes the form of a popular-cultural text itself, and will therefore be analysed as such. With the help of cultural-historical concepts such as identity creation and collective, cultural and prosthetic memory the study in question will supply a relevant contribution through analysis and result. The result itself concluded that Nolan dedicated his depiction of the events at Dunkerque to the people and civilians. Through heavily romanticised depictions of civilian efforts, small boats in focus, and the intimate narratives of the soldiers’ struggles, the identification easily cements itself in the audience through sheer emotional investment with the characters and the intricate social hierarchies they produce through isolation and exclusion. In relation to mediating a cultural memory through popular-culture film, these possibilities of identification also create possibilities of prosthetic memories to develop, through which audiences undertake cultural memories they are not entitled to by heritage.