Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the emotional appeal made by the British newspaper discourse in connection with the commemoration of the Falklands War (United Kingdom–Argentina, 1982). Loaded language in combination with moving pictures of women in tears paying tribute to their dead husbands provides useful items with news value by incorporating a human and emotive dimension. This paper argues that the narrative of the widows wiping away a tear, as portrayed in the press discourse of the Falklands War anniversary, brings about the notions of a united family, the British families joined in remembrance, celebration, and mourning. The British press transforms these widows into national symbols of remembrance, and, as such, they become the societal mourners whose primary role in the family and nation is to keep the memory of the dead hero alive.  These Falklands widows are the enablers of manly pride, who come to symbolize both private and collective grief, becoming essential for further construction of masculinity and patriotism.