Virtual Special Issue on Monuments and the Sited Struggles of Memorialisation for Space and Culture (Journal)

Description

The myth of places as singular, as abstract, as unified, gives cover to efforts to tie memory to place. As Nora’s work on the “conquest and eradication of memory by history” (1989, p. 8) demonstrates, national narratives are “put together” through a “memorial consciousness” (1989, p. 12). Because memories are made in place, the act of re-membering always encounters trouble when trying to anchor narratives and communities to singular and definitive versions of events. Thus memorials “as the final word” are impossible within an understanding of place as performative and agentic.

Over the last 21 years, Space and Culture has published much important work on cultural memory, space, and place. This Virtual Special Issue looks back over work published in the journal for key works that illustrate how this memorial consciousness works, and encounters resistances, within the spaces of everyday life. These articles also speak to a growing body of the literature on the politics of place within public histories as a means to reclaim and reimagine sites of exclusion. The articles linked here are part of wider discussions to which Space and Culture continues to contribute, including a special issue on “Sites of Conscience”.

Period	30 Jun 2021
Degree of Recognition	International