American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations
Memory and Meaning: Constructed Commemoration in a Nation's Capital City
Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
American Culture Studies/History
First Advisor
Rebecca Mancuso (Committee Chair)
Second Advisor
Andrew Schocket (Committee Member)
Third Advisor
Michael Butterworth (Committee Member)
Fourth Advisor
Stephen Ortiz (Committee Member)
Fifth Advisor
Cindy Hendricks (Committee Member)
Abstract
Memorials and acts of commemoration are all around us; we encounter them, in various forms and layers, every day. This dissertation explores the ideas surrounding what these acts of memorialization mean, to communities and to nations, by examining war memorials in the United States and Canada, specifically the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, and the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Ontario. It argues that the differences between the two are emblematic of the larger differences between each nation's national identity.
A great deal of the existing memorial scholarship approaches visitor reactions in broad theoretical ways, or in response to well-known events with lasting historical impact. By combining the theoretical and historical uses of memorial sites with the ethnographic everyday observations taken directly at the National World War II Memorial and National War Memorial, this dissertation builds on existing scholarship by revealing how the visiting public interprets and engages with the memorials, and also provides case studies on how each nation chooses to literally and figuratively frame its history for public consumption, particularly within the urban ceremonial core of each national capital.
Recommended Citation
Weeks, Eric, "Memory and Meaning: Constructed Commemoration in a Nation's Capital City" (2012). American Culture Studies Ph.D. Dissertations. 50.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/acs_diss/50