Memory and far-right historiography: The case of the Christchurch shooter

Abstract

This article investigates far-right conceptions of history and memory through the case of Christchurch shooter. Scholarly work on far-right memory practices is still in its infancy, and research into the Christchurch shooter in particular has underplayed this crucial aspect of his ideological drive for violence. By investigating the narrative elements of his historiography, the article argues that far-right extremism taps into a range of historical templates to structure a trajectory of time and historical development that seeks to legitimize present violence in relation to the legacies and exemplary instances of the past as well as historically contingent aspirations for the future. The danger of this memory working is its utility—through the channels of digital culture and communication—in promising to canonize the terrorist as a historicized object in a chronicle of ancient struggle, providing temporalized purpose to his violence in both a retrospective and prospective manner.