Фигура С. Родса в контексте "войн памяти" Соединённого Королевства 2020-2021 гг.

Abstract

He political movement “Black Lives Matter” has activated a new stage of development of the “memory wars” in Europe. A new life stage of “memorial wars” is connected with the development of discussions about the role of imperial heritage and memorials of politicians and colonists in the past. The article analyses one of the most resonant episodes of these events - the debate about the toppling of statues of British politician C. Rhodes. The goal of this research is to identify the role of the personality of C. Rhodes in the “memory wars” of Great Britain. The sources of the article consist of materials from the periodical press, social networks and speeches by representatives of the Conservative and Labour Parties of the United Kingdom. The research was created in the functional paradigm, which provides to explore relationships between activists of the “Black Lives Matter”, “Rhodes Mast Fall” and the largest political parties in Great Britain. The article identifies the key arguments of each side in the conflict. It provides that the most of the supporters who side with the toppling of the monument to C. Rhodes are descendants of migrants of different generations. Therefore, this discussion represented for them a painful narrative of the exploitation of colonies by the metropolises. Based on the application of critical discourse analysis, there is a note that the position of supporters of the preservation of the monument is based on the special significance of the imperial heritage of Great Britain as an integral part of national identity. Finally, the research concludes that the analysis of the case of C. Rhodes demonstrates the incompleteness of the decolonization process.