ABSTRACT
Memory forms a pertinent ingredient in the production of nationhood and nationalism (Bell 2003, Said 2000, Smith 1999; see also, Gillis 1994, Sturken 1997). The construction of ‘nation’ vis-à-vis tropes that represent national identity are intimately linked to variegated productions of memory (Bell 2003, Eidson 2000, White 1999) at the individual, group, and state levels. As Nora puts it, ‘memory is by nature multiple and yet specific; collective, plural, and yet individual’ (1989: 9). Smith furthers the argument by linking individual recollection with collective memory: ‘[C]ollective cultural identities are based on the shared memories of experiences and activities of successive generations of a group distinguished by one or more shared cultural elements’ (1999: 262). Where discourses on how memory production and dissemination turn into an avenue of national identity formation, I focus in this paper on the employment of the senses by social actors and state institutions in shaping memories of National Service (NS) in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).1 As ‘the body’ takes up a central position within the military environment (Foucault 1977, Higate 1998, Mazur and Keating 1984, Scott and Morgan 1993), it makes sense to interpret memories and experiences of NS from the vantage point of embodied perspectives (see Shilling 2008, Stoller 1997), where the senses ought to be given due attention.
