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Popular Culture Review
redesigned bills, and the new image of Laurier is less like the profiles of
Spock or Snape (Huffmgton). Although the above images are not official
currency (they cease to hold value once defaced), the popularity of the
figures on them, and their placement on national currency emphasizes
how strongly the characters are identified as cultural heroes. Digital
memes are making this type of “adaptation” more and more frequent,
however, and reflect a cultural awareness of popular national figures who
appeal to their respective countries.
As the Internet and multi-media venues for image dissemination
increase with rapid advances in technology, our world is becoming
increasingly more global—and increasingly identified with our visible,
popular cultural icons. It is important to remember that the third estate
needs icons with which they identify, and feel represent their “real,” non
political culture. How we are represented to other cultures matters.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Heather Lusty
Notes
‘ “Cathleen ni Houlihan functions, in the eighteenth-century Irish tradition o f the aisling,
or dream poem, as a symbol of national pride and fierce resistance to British rule. Yeats
portrayed Cathleen as an old woman who persuades a young man on the eve o f his
wedding to serve her cause by joining in the 1798 Rebellion, which ended in a massacre
of the vastly overmatched Irish rebels.” Flannery, James. “The Walk o f a Queen.” Irish
Central. 14 July 2011. Retrieved 08 December 2013.
^ Although Mandela was the first president of the non-apartheid state, he is labeled on the
currency as Father of the Nation — a far more important distinction. His lifelong
dedication to political and social equality is arguably his more important contribution to
South African culture and history.
^ In Africa, the “Big Five” game animals (i.e., the most difficult and dangerous to hunt)
are the lion, the African elephant, the rhinoceros, the leopard, and the Cape buffalo. They
began appearing on South Afncan banknotes (the rand) in 1990.
^ Churchill’s banknote is back grounded by an image o f his Nobel Prize in Literature,
awarded in 1953.
^ Most of the countries listed here have one or two “main” images, then a host o f smaller
images for the smaller coin denominations.
Works Cited
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin
and Spread o f Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983. Print.