The Presence of the Present: Hijacking ‘The Good War’?

Balthrop, V. William; Blair, Carole; Michel, Neil

doi:10.1080/10570311003614500

Cited by 19 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Nowhere are these issues engaged as dramatically as in sites grappling with traumas such as war. Building upon Biesecker's (2002) claim regarding the ideological function of World War II within American political culture, Balthrop, Blair, and Michel (2010) offer a reading of the World War II memorial on the Washington Mall deemed "culturally illegible" by critics. Cited for its "surfeit of symbolism" (Balthrop, Blair, and Michel, 2010, 174), the World War II memorial was criticized for its inappropriate and confusing symbolism as well as its lack of emotional resonance with visitors.…”

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cited for its "surfeit of symbolism" (Balthrop, Blair, and Michel, 2010, 174), the World War II memorial was criticized for its inappropriate and confusing symbolism as well as its lack of emotional resonance with visitors. However, when read against the memorial's dedication events, Balthrop, Blair, and Michel (2010) argue, the World War II Memorial can be made legible as a tool advancing a US imperialist agenda.…”

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Serving to bolster support for the US invasion of Iraq, the World War II Memorial, argue Balthrop, Blair, and Michel (2010), broke with the event being commemorated to speak to more presentist aims, leading them to question whether the past was indeed "hijacked. "…”

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wagner-Pacifici and Schwartz (1991) argue that the Memorial designed by Maya Lin, "informed by ambivalence about both the cause and its participants," was moved "in the direction of the muted and unobtrusive" (392). In contrast to the World War II memorial, so laden with symbolism as to render the structure inchoate according to critics (Balthrop, Blair, and Michel, 2010), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is so controversial because it lacked the markers of traditional war memorials. Instead of offering a clear message, the memorial, Ehrenhaus (1988) claims, "places both the burden and the freedom upon us to discover what these past events mean, whether these deaths do have meaning, what virtue is to be found in sacrifice, and what our own relationship should be to our political institutions" (55).…”

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Politics of Memory

Maurantonio

2014

Oxford Handbooks Online

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This chapter considers the definitional and disciplinary politics surrounding the study of memory, exploring the various sites of memory study that have emerged within the field of communication. Specifically, this chapter reviews sites of memory and commemoration, ranging from places such as museums, monuments, and memorials, to textual forms, including journalism and consumer culture. Within each context, this chapter examines the ways in which these sites have interpreted and reinterpreted traumatic pasts bearing great consequence for national identity. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges set forth by new media for scholars engaging in studies of the politics of memory and identifies areas worthy of future research.

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Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodological and Theoretical Politics Of Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Politics of Memory

Maurantonio

2014

Oxford Handbooks Online

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“…Scholarly analyses of museums tends to focus on the interpretation of rhetoric in a specific site, placing that particular representation of history within suggested, preferred cultural narratives and perspectives. 24 Presidential libraries and museums serve a special purpose. More than a mere depository of documents, each of the presidential libraries has an affiliated museum with exhibits and displays that highlight the former president's life and political career.…”

Section: Presidential Museums and Collective Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering and Re-Creating the Great Debates of 1960: Presidential Libraries as Sites for Political Argumentation

Drury

Herbeck

2015

Communication Quarterly

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The Arguments of the Tombs of the Unknown: Relationality and National Legitimation

2011

Self Cite

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In the wake of the First World War, a new form of commemoration emerged internationally, but in each case focused upon a new kind of national ''hero''-the unknown soldier or warrior. The first instances appeared in France and Britain in 1920, followed by the United States in 1921, and Belgium in 1922. Other nations followed suit over the years, with the most recent WWI Unknown Soldier monument dedicated in 2004, in New Zealand. The motivational calculus of these national tombs was, of course, the massive number of combatant dead whose remains could not be identified. This paper takes up the two very different arguments composed by these commemorative sites. The first argument was directed to surviving family members and was articulated most explicitly by the French as a hypothetical enthymeme ''this could be your husband, your father, your brother,'' etc. The second argument has been directed to national and international collectives as a constitutive proclamation of legitimated nation-state or Empire Although this argument is particularly explicit in postcolonial gestures of independence on the part of former dominions of old empires, it was evident in even the earliest cases of the tombs of the unknown.

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The Presence of the Present: Hijacking ‘The Good War’?

Cited by 19 publications

References 39 publications

The Politics of Memory

The Politics of Memory

Remembering and Re-Creating the Great Debates of 1960: Presidential Libraries as Sites for Political Argumentation

The Arguments of the Tombs of the Unknown: Relationality and National Legitimation

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