Embodied spaces of nation: Performing the national trauma at Hellfire Pass

In recent years, much theoretical attention has been paid to the question of mobilities and the creation of identities in a world characterised by global flows of cultures, commodities, signs, images and ideologies. Sheller and Urry (2006) and Urry (2007) have examined the growing volume of people in constant movement. For them, ¿mobilities¿ is the new paradigm, encompassing both the increasing movement of social actors and a concomitant expansion in interconnections and new forms of proximity. Bauman's (1996) work engages with the problem of establishing identity in a world of mobilities. Along with the flâneur, the vagabond and the player, he identifies the tourist as the postmodern successor to the pilgrim. These characters provide the metaphor for the `postmodern strategy moved by the horror of being bound and fixed' (Bauman, 1996: 26).