Traumatic encounters with Frank Mechau's Dangers of the Mail
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12739988 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jessy J Ohl (University of Alabama, corresponding author), Jennifer Potter (0000-0002-6221-8895, Towson University) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 26-42 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1479-1420 • E-ISSN: 1479-4233 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14791420.2019.1593470 |
| OpenAlex | W2937368043 |
| Language | EN |
This essay examines Frank Mechau's infamous mural Dangers of the Mail as an opportunity to theorize the force of memories contingent upon immediate sensual encounters that operate largely irrespective of actual historical occurrences. Through an analysis of public documents, archival material from the 1930s and early 2000s, and two separate tours of the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building in 2015 and 2016, we argue Mechau's Dangers of the Mail triggers a form of traumatic sense memory that positions audiences within a trauma economy in which sensation functions as epistemological grounding for political struggle
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Media studies · Mural · Political science · Politics · Sociology · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Psychology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |