Methods, Sites and Sources for
Studying Discourse about
Commemoration and Silencing
Professor:
Jan Marontate
Visitors to “The wall”, The Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial
designed by Maya Lin in Washington D.C.
Themes
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Methods for conducting
research on collective memory
Archives and other
documentary sources;
– visual images; living traditions;
innovations and the culture of the
“new”; events and non-events;
material culture (objects,
artefacts, memorials, built
heritage, reconstructions);
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Memories as mediation &
communication
Today’s Class
1.
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Handout #3 and website link
Discussion of ways of doing research on
collective memory & public & private
discourse
A few case studies as examples
Discussion of ideas for projects & planning
term project
Film screening: “An oral history of SFU: the
excitement of the early years”
Possible Sources for Research
(Short Reports)
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Main types of sources:
– Scholarly studies (ex. Published in refereed
journals, academic presses or by researchers in
government or institutions) of phenomena or
experiences of it
– Popular media (ex. press coverage,
documentaries, fictionalized representations)
– First-person accounts
– Other records (often in archives) such as
documentation generated for other purposes
Conducting research
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Seek other information on the phenomenon
represented.
– “facts”, opinions, attitudes, experiences
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Critically analyze the “fit” between the depiction and
documentation about the subject represented.
– What does the depiction include and what is left out?
– Connections between current/past?
– What factors may have influenced the representation?
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Be sure to discuss both the object of remembrance
and the depiction of it in context.
Tracking Changes in Collective
Memory: An empirical approach
(Schwartz 1982)
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Study of events and persons commemorate in a
National Capital
Theoretical question: how the organization &
needs of social groups affect “collective
representations”
Methods:
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Define Measures
Describe Research site
Data collection & analysis
Another
Notion of Mnemonic
consensus
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Rethinking Halbwachs: forgetting as a
function of disappearance of groups which
“sponsored” memories
“hot moments” (Claude Lévi-Strauss)
Magic & prestige of Origins (Mircea Eliade)
– Great moments, great deeds as indicators of the
character of a people
– But– origins impos discontinuities (Zerubavel)
Relations of Past (Memory) &
Present (Schwartz 1982)
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Reality of past in Present
– `sanctification of past only if sustained by
society’s subsequent interests, needs
– BUT– problematic
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Does that mean there is no ‘Objectivity’ in records of
the past
– Two opposing views:
Noting contingent about our understanding of the past?
 Past is contingent on our understandings of it today?
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Schartz’s Methods & Sources
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Iconography as a way of
commemorating people &
events, ex. Abraham
Lincoln Memorial in
Washington DC.
Icons
– Signs
– Sacred
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Method: classified
commemorative
monuments by type (pp.
378), period
commemorated etc… to
identify period most
commemorated
Case Study of changing place of
events and individuals in
commemoration & public discourse
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Barry Schawrtz
Abraham Lincoln and
the Forge of National
Memory link
Public Discourse, Controversy
& Commemoration
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Article by Robin Wagner-Pacifici & Barry
Schwartz
Objective: study processes by which cultural
meaning is produced by analyzing a specific
case: Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial
Official site
Other sites: ex. Search the Wall
Other Methods
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Article by Anna Lisa Tota
Ex. Bologna Massacre in 1980 in Italy
– Interviews with survivors (first person accounts) and their
families
– Study of victim’s family association
– Study of other activities: local institutions & pressure
groups become “memory authorities”
Changes in Discourse & activities
within Mnemonic Communities
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Bologna case: transition from mourning to
moral testimony
Merging of family, individual and public
memories
An Different Approach in Locating
Memory: Photographic Acts
(McAllister)
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Archival research
(Japanese Canadian
National Archives &
Museum
Photos of internment
camps
Personal & scholarly
perspectives combined in
semiotic analysis of
Case Studies of Museum
Exhibitions
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Ex. Amy Fried (September 11
exhibition) or Vera Zolberg
(Enola Gay)
Sources: news media,
interviews, congressional
records etc…
Critical analysis of the role of
history museums in construction
/ representation of the past
(creation of memories as model
for society)
Interaction of various
stakeholders & political
opposition to museological
“reflecting the real”
Film Screening
An Oral History of SFU: TheExcitment of the
Early Years
 SFU Retirees Association
 Media Resource Centre
Call Number: LE 3 S82 072 2005.
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