PLACES OF MEMORY AND THE SHADOW OF WAR

Abstract

Sites of memory are topoi with a life history. They have an initial, creative phase, when they are constructed or adapted to particular commemorative purposes. Then follows a period of institutionalization and routinization of their use. Such markings of the calendar, indicating moments of remembrance at particular places, can last for decades, or they can be abruptly halted. In most instances, the significance of sites of memory fades away with the passing of the social groups which initiated the practice. Sites of memory operate on many levels of aggregation and touches many facets of associative life. While such sites were familiar in the ancient and medieval period, they have proliferated in more recent times. Consequently, the subject has attracted much academic and popular discussion. We therefore concentrate here on sites of memory in the epoch of the nation state, primarily in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Keywords

• sites of memory
• practices of commemoration
• war memorials
• collective memory
• politics of memory