Collective remembering through the materiality and organization of war memorials

Bibliographic Data

ID2390964
AuthorsZachary Beckstead (Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA,, corresponding author), Gabriel Twose (Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA,, corresponding author), Emily Levesque-Gottlieb (Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA,, corresponding author), Julia Rizzo (Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA,, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume16
Issue2
Pages193-213
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183511401494
OpenAlexW2109430851
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited32

This article investigates how material objects fit into societal discourses of remembering; the authors focus on how the spatial and material composition of objects can affect subjects, thus suggesting particular meanings and engagements. In particular, they investigate war memorials as cultural objects and products of social discourses, but emphasize that the memorials are not reducible to these discourses. Rather, the materials used in the creation of war memorials as well as their holistic organization constitute vital aspects of the memorial site and its ability to engage individuals and groups in socially desirable and personally meaningful processes. The authors analyze the Massachusetts Vietnam Veterans Memorial, taking into account the holistic material organization, hyper-generalization of signs, symbolic functions, and social suggestions that the memorial provides for visitors passing through. They argue that, partially through its very materiality, the memorial guides the direction of viewers' affective response, leading to particular interpretations and reactions

Aesthetics · Affect (linguistics · Art · Composition (language · Epistemology · Literature · Materiality (auditing · Sociology · Communication · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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