A Lion for Flanders

In Flanders, Belgium, public acts of national allegiance are often grounded in the political rhetoric of the Great War that was, and continues to be, promoted by several powerful symbols, most visibly the Flemish lion – the official symbol of Flanders and, in its alternate version, the separatist Flemish nationalist movement. The examination of the reliance on the image of the Flemish lion at two annual pilgrimages to the World War I Belgian battlefields highlights an ongoing dialogue between memory and identity that stems from the formation of Belgium. The Great War and the unusual political situation that developed in the trenches of the Belgian Front, comprised of a small portion of unoccupied Belgium in the NW corner of the country, exacerbated the acute desire for Flemish recognition within Francophone Belgium. The myths of Flemish subjugation at the hands of the French-speaking officer class in the Great War played a pivotal role in the rising social and political Flemish organizations in the immediate postwar years. Some factions, the Activists, agitated for a separate Flemish state while others, the Passivists, lobbied for more rights for Flanders within Belgium, but both groups relied heavily on the visual culture created during the war. Much of this nationalist literary and visual language was created in the nineteenth century, but essentially served the cultural rejuvenation of a distinct Flemish consciousness for Flanders and the Flemish language during 14–18 that continues to serve as signs of cultural and political allegiance

Archaeology · Art · Flemish · Literature · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · European Cultural and National Identity · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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