Banal Nationalism and Imperial Memory in Urban Space: Exploring the Memorialization of Captain Scott in Cardiff’s Semiotic Landscape

This article examines memorials and tributes to explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott within the semiotic landscape of Cardiff, a major logistical and financial base for the British Antarctic Expedition 1910-13. Using a “walking approach” grounded in Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, it explores how their design, material form, spatial setting, and historical context shape the (re)production of discourses and construct Scott’s legacy through interaction with the urban environment. The analysis finds that, despite differences in memorial form and historical period, Cardiff’s commemorative landscape consistently reproduces a selective narrative of Scott as a heroic martyr. It further reveals that these memorials reposition Cardiff as the symbolic center of the expedition, transforming Scott’s story from a broader imperial narrative into a localized expression of Welsh maritime and civic identity. The article concludes that changing commemorative strategies sustain rather than dismantle these core discourses, demonstrating how urban memorial forms institutionalize heroic myth and anchor it within evolving local identity formations.