Enframing the Falklands: Identity, Landscape, and the 1982 South Atlantic War

Abstract

In this paper I consider the role of landscape representations of the Falklands during the 1982 Falklands War. I suggest that the Thatcher government's attempts to reimagine a neglected and remote colony in the South Atlantic as British sovereign territory was significant in mobilising media and public support for the recovery campaign. The role of rural imagery is considered to be one element in that reimaginative process. The actual experiences of the task force and journalists sent to report on the war campaign often clashed with the published reports of the mainstream media. Although government-imposed censorship played a part in ensuring the positive reporting predominated, negative impressions of the campaign and the islands themselves were significant in terms of forcing some to reconsider the strategic and symbolic value of the Falklands. In the final section of the paper I consider not only how the war dead were commemorated but also the decision by the then government to allow fallen soldiers to be buried in the United Kingdom rather than in the Falklands.