The aim of this thesis is to see how the centenary of the Titanic disaster is observed in the cities Belfast, Southampton and Halifax. It also contains a Swedish perspective to the event. There is a part of the thesis which is focused on an analysis of what memorials and memories mean to the disaster and the survival of the very same. The main sources of the thesis have mostly been internet editions of newspapers from the cities mentioned above, but also the paper editions of two of the biggest Swedish newspapers. An analysis of these sources shows that the memory of the Titanic, and foremost its passengers and crew is still alive. The perished were honoured at the commemorations through denudations of new memorials and descendants who paid their respects. The analysis also shows that the memory of the Titanic and the identity it created are important elements, primarily in Southampton and Belfast. These two cities embrace their Titanic heritage by exhibitions, both permanent and temporary ones. The conclusion of the analysis is that the memories of the Titanic are observed in different ways depending of which city it is. Belfast is a lot about remembering the construction; Southampton remembers the departure and Halifax focus on the perished, although, all three cities honour the catastrophe and the victims. No matter how the centenary is respected, one can easily notice that the Titanic is remembered; the question now is if the ship of dreams is immortal or if the disaster one day will fade to oblivion?

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.

This study aims to analyse the representation of Scottish and English national identity in the tv-series Outlander (2014-). By recreating a historically influenced narrative of relations between Scotland and England, in the aftermath of the Union of 1707 and the upcoming Jacobite rebellion of 1745, the series also mediate a disputed collective British identity. Therefore, it is imperative to analyse how pop-culture functionalises memories of nations’ historical past to influence contemporary identities. First, I establish an inventory of semiotic mythic tokens of national identity. I then conduct a contextual analysis of national discursive identity on these. A further theoretical sociohistorical framework of contemporary ideology, mediated through pop-culture, materialises Outlanders impact on viewers’ own creation of identity. Through representations of myth Outlander mediates the stereotypical, romanticised image of Scottish highlanders as “superstitious barbarians” - a dualistic concept of national identity, depending on its context. To the viewer it’s an idealised image of someone rebellious, living outside the industrialised and modernised society. To the English/British soldiers it’s an image of the underdeveloped, uncivilised savage, the soldiers themselves being portrayed in Outlander as the cultivated superior in pursuit of cultural salvation for their inferior. The national discourse of both nations is symbiotic and dependent, each in need of the other’s binary identity to recreate its own. However, establishing a collective British national identity in Outlander also means a cultural sacrifice of the inferior to the superior – the cultural heritage of British identity should build on English national discourse alone. An important conclusion this study draws is the similarity between the dependency national discourses have to their binary “other” and contemporary society depending on the past in the creation of its identity. This recreational process is no longer, in a time of mass media, solely inherited by individual collective communities.