Nanci Adler
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199240906
- eISBN:
- 9780191598869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199240906.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Democratization
This chapter explores Russia’s attempts to come to terms with its Stalinist past in an endeavour to build a civil society based on the rule of law. It begins by examining the nature of Stalinist ...
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This chapter explores Russia’s attempts to come to terms with its Stalinist past in an endeavour to build a civil society based on the rule of law. It begins by examining the nature of Stalinist repression and the legacy of Soviet terror. It goes on to focus on halted official efforts at truth telling, and persistent unofficial efforts, led by the organization Memorial, at remembering and commemorating; this provides insight into the issues that daunted the quest for moral recovery. The chapter then looks at post-Soviet efforts to come to terms with the Stalinist past, and finally it assesses the impact of the discussion of past injustices, or the politics of memory, on Russia’s subsequent process of democratization. The information presented and the conclusions drawn are necessarily based on a number of scattered sources, including memoirs, interviews and official archives; Russia’s experience is unique, and difficult to compare with other post-authoritarian political systems, especially as democracy has not taken substantial hold, and, since the transition is so new, questions of accountability are only beginning to be addressed.Less
This chapter explores Russia’s attempts to come to terms with its Stalinist past in an endeavour to build a civil society based on the rule of law. It begins by examining the nature of Stalinist repression and the legacy of Soviet terror. It goes on to focus on halted official efforts at truth telling, and persistent unofficial efforts, led by the organization Memorial, at remembering and commemorating; this provides insight into the issues that daunted the quest for moral recovery. The chapter then looks at post-Soviet efforts to come to terms with the Stalinist past, and finally it assesses the impact of the discussion of past injustices, or the politics of memory, on Russia’s subsequent process of democratization. The information presented and the conclusions drawn are necessarily based on a number of scattered sources, including memoirs, interviews and official archives; Russia’s experience is unique, and difficult to compare with other post-authoritarian political systems, especially as democracy has not taken substantial hold, and, since the transition is so new, questions of accountability are only beginning to be addressed.
Ian Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263181
- eISBN:
- 9780191734595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263181.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The arts of memory and of biography have always been closely related. For instance, the memoir, which is an act of remembrance, has a double sense: it looks at the past and to the future, selecting ...
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The arts of memory and of biography have always been closely related. For instance, the memoir, which is an act of remembrance, has a double sense: it looks at the past and to the future, selecting from the stream of memories to form an enduring record called memorial by which events and people can be remembered in the years to come. In Restoration England, memoirs and memorials were popular forms when the word ‘biography’ first appeared. During this period there was an intense interest in the chronicling of the lives of those who contributed much to political and religious events. This commemoration of lives, which gained momentum in Restoration England, was an ancient enterprise. Biographies were regarded as durable monuments wherein the idea of remembrance took an important place. This attributed significance made those endowed with powerful memories venerated people. This chapter discusses the remarkable memorialists of the period. It looks at the career of Reverend Dr. Thomas Fuller as a biographer and as an author of many historical works. Fuller exhibited a photographic memory and an inclination to the memorization of long passages. In addition to this technique, he also adopted a rule that assisted memory; he employed the methodical distribution of facts into discrete locations. As for his biographical methods, Fuller considered two factors: the sense of pragmatism, and the sense of piety.Less
The arts of memory and of biography have always been closely related. For instance, the memoir, which is an act of remembrance, has a double sense: it looks at the past and to the future, selecting from the stream of memories to form an enduring record called memorial by which events and people can be remembered in the years to come. In Restoration England, memoirs and memorials were popular forms when the word ‘biography’ first appeared. During this period there was an intense interest in the chronicling of the lives of those who contributed much to political and religious events. This commemoration of lives, which gained momentum in Restoration England, was an ancient enterprise. Biographies were regarded as durable monuments wherein the idea of remembrance took an important place. This attributed significance made those endowed with powerful memories venerated people. This chapter discusses the remarkable memorialists of the period. It looks at the career of Reverend Dr. Thomas Fuller as a biographer and as an author of many historical works. Fuller exhibited a photographic memory and an inclination to the memorization of long passages. In addition to this technique, he also adopted a rule that assisted memory; he employed the methodical distribution of facts into discrete locations. As for his biographical methods, Fuller considered two factors: the sense of pragmatism, and the sense of piety.
Polly Low, Graham Oliver, and P.J. Rhodes (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264669
- eISBN:
- 9780191753985
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264669.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book offers a comparative approach to the study of the commemoration of war. It draws together a set of contributions that combine to produce a considered approach to the changes and ...
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This book offers a comparative approach to the study of the commemoration of war. It draws together a set of contributions that combine to produce a considered approach to the changes and continuities that marked the ways in which war, and in particular the war dead, were commemorated and remembered. Chapters explore the commemorative practices of Ancient Greece and Rome, and investigate how those practices have been reflected, adapted and abandoned in more recent Western cultures, from eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Britain, Germany and the USA. The book concentrates on monuments set up by communities, from local communities to the state, but it also considers the role of ‘private’ memorials, since the interaction between private or more personalised monuments and the commemoration of the war dead by the community often lies at the heart of commemorative practices. It furthermore explores the relationship between memory and forgetting, in the context of the longer-term idea of cultural memory. Key questions addressed by the book include: What importance does such commemoration have for the cultures that continue to live with the legacies of the commemorative actions of the recent and distant past? How is the commemoration of the war dead of the past not only used but reused? The book demonstrates that our own understanding of the treatment of the war dead has absorbed and reinterpreted the treatments already developed by past societies.Less
This book offers a comparative approach to the study of the commemoration of war. It draws together a set of contributions that combine to produce a considered approach to the changes and continuities that marked the ways in which war, and in particular the war dead, were commemorated and remembered. Chapters explore the commemorative practices of Ancient Greece and Rome, and investigate how those practices have been reflected, adapted and abandoned in more recent Western cultures, from eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Britain, Germany and the USA. The book concentrates on monuments set up by communities, from local communities to the state, but it also considers the role of ‘private’ memorials, since the interaction between private or more personalised monuments and the commemoration of the war dead by the community often lies at the heart of commemorative practices. It furthermore explores the relationship between memory and forgetting, in the context of the longer-term idea of cultural memory. Key questions addressed by the book include: What importance does such commemoration have for the cultures that continue to live with the legacies of the commemorative actions of the recent and distant past? How is the commemoration of the war dead of the past not only used but reused? The book demonstrates that our own understanding of the treatment of the war dead has absorbed and reinterpreted the treatments already developed by past societies.
J. Patrick Hornbeck II
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199589043
- eISBN:
- 9780191594564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589043.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Whereas many lollards never questioned a works‐oriented approach to the doctrine of salvation, dissenting views on the Eucharist reveal more substantial divergences from orthodoxy. The Mass was at ...
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Whereas many lollards never questioned a works‐oriented approach to the doctrine of salvation, dissenting views on the Eucharist reveal more substantial divergences from orthodoxy. The Mass was at the heart of late medieval religious practice, and it was Wyclif's decision to reject the doctrine of transubstantiation that led in 1381 to his exile from Oxford. Scholars have long known that Wyclif believed that Christ is spiritually present in the consecrated elements, and it has been held that, in the hands of later dissenters, his theology of remanence slowly evolved into a figurative interpretation of the sacrament. Instead, Wycliffite tracts and court records reveal that figurative and remanence theologies were both current in the early fifteenth century, and the patterns of their dissemination reveal the roles that family and civic ties played in the formation of heterodox beliefs. Figurative theologies of the Eucharist were especially prevalent among the communities of Coventry and Lichfield, Salisbury, and Winchester dioceses, and it was in these regions of England that texts articulating such views circulated most widely.Less
Whereas many lollards never questioned a works‐oriented approach to the doctrine of salvation, dissenting views on the Eucharist reveal more substantial divergences from orthodoxy. The Mass was at the heart of late medieval religious practice, and it was Wyclif's decision to reject the doctrine of transubstantiation that led in 1381 to his exile from Oxford. Scholars have long known that Wyclif believed that Christ is spiritually present in the consecrated elements, and it has been held that, in the hands of later dissenters, his theology of remanence slowly evolved into a figurative interpretation of the sacrament. Instead, Wycliffite tracts and court records reveal that figurative and remanence theologies were both current in the early fifteenth century, and the patterns of their dissemination reveal the roles that family and civic ties played in the formation of heterodox beliefs. Figurative theologies of the Eucharist were especially prevalent among the communities of Coventry and Lichfield, Salisbury, and Winchester dioceses, and it was in these regions of England that texts articulating such views circulated most widely.
James Carter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195398854
- eISBN:
- 9780199894413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398854.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter comments on the author’s interaction with his subject, culminating in the discomfort some of Tanxu’s followers came to feel about the interpretation of their teacher’s life, and in ...
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This chapter comments on the author’s interaction with his subject, culminating in the discomfort some of Tanxu’s followers came to feel about the interpretation of their teacher’s life, and in particular how that interpretation could jeopardize current initiatives to revive or expand some of Tanxu’s former temples in ChinaLess
This chapter comments on the author’s interaction with his subject, culminating in the discomfort some of Tanxu’s followers came to feel about the interpretation of their teacher’s life, and in particular how that interpretation could jeopardize current initiatives to revive or expand some of Tanxu’s former temples in China
POLLY LOW and GRAHAM OLIVER
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264669
- eISBN:
- 9780191753985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264669.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This introductory chapter surveys recent and current trends in the study of memory and commemoration, and also outlines the themes explored in the rest of the book: the forms of monuments, and the ...
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This introductory chapter surveys recent and current trends in the study of memory and commemoration, and also outlines the themes explored in the rest of the book: the forms of monuments, and the contexts in which monuments were located; the role of ritual; tensions between public and private commemorations; and the relationship between memory and forgetting.Less
This introductory chapter surveys recent and current trends in the study of memory and commemoration, and also outlines the themes explored in the rest of the book: the forms of monuments, and the contexts in which monuments were located; the role of ritual; tensions between public and private commemorations; and the relationship between memory and forgetting.
GRAHAM OLIVER
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264669
- eISBN:
- 9780191753985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264669.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The chapter focuses on the commemoration of the individual in ancient and modern cultures. It argues that the attitude to individual commemoration adopted by the War Graves Commission in the First ...
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The chapter focuses on the commemoration of the individual in ancient and modern cultures. It argues that the attitude to individual commemoration adopted by the War Graves Commission in the First World War in Britain can be linked to the commemorative practices of ancient Greece, emphasising the importance of the part played by Sir Frederic Kenyon. The chapter draws on examples of commemoration from classical Athens, twentieth-century Britain and the Soviet Union in order to explore the different roles that the commemoration of the individual has played in ancient and modern forms of war commemoration.Less
The chapter focuses on the commemoration of the individual in ancient and modern cultures. It argues that the attitude to individual commemoration adopted by the War Graves Commission in the First World War in Britain can be linked to the commemorative practices of ancient Greece, emphasising the importance of the part played by Sir Frederic Kenyon. The chapter draws on examples of commemoration from classical Athens, twentieth-century Britain and the Soviet Union in order to explore the different roles that the commemoration of the individual has played in ancient and modern forms of war commemoration.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This book examines how practices of commemoration and arguments about history informed early American debates over slavery and citizenship. The setting is a time and place in which people were ...
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This book examines how practices of commemoration and arguments about history informed early American debates over slavery and citizenship. The setting is a time and place in which people were hyperconscious of their role as historical actors and narrators: Massachusetts in the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Drawing on a rich and varied source base, the narrative traces how historical memory was implicated in three different forms of emancipation: the construction of a “free” national identity; the abolitionist movement against chattel slavery; and the fight for full citizenship for people of color. Harnessing these political causes to Bay Staters' understanding of their local history — especially the legacies of the American Revolution — was crucial to the success of each of them. In moving from the particular context of early national Massachusetts toward a broader consideration of the politics of memory in American history, this book shows that historical narratives are not merely reflections of their political and social context but also interventions into the power struggles of their moment.Less
This book examines how practices of commemoration and arguments about history informed early American debates over slavery and citizenship. The setting is a time and place in which people were hyperconscious of their role as historical actors and narrators: Massachusetts in the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War. Drawing on a rich and varied source base, the narrative traces how historical memory was implicated in three different forms of emancipation: the construction of a “free” national identity; the abolitionist movement against chattel slavery; and the fight for full citizenship for people of color. Harnessing these political causes to Bay Staters' understanding of their local history — especially the legacies of the American Revolution — was crucial to the success of each of them. In moving from the particular context of early national Massachusetts toward a broader consideration of the politics of memory in American history, this book shows that historical narratives are not merely reflections of their political and social context but also interventions into the power struggles of their moment.
Rémi Korman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719097560
- eISBN:
- 9781526104441
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719097560.003.0009
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Global
Contrary to other countries that suffered mass violence in the late twentieth century, such as Bosnia, the issue of individual identification or DNA identification has never been considered seriously ...
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Contrary to other countries that suffered mass violence in the late twentieth century, such as Bosnia, the issue of individual identification or DNA identification has never been considered seriously by the national and international agents of the memory in Rwanda. The lack of forensic investigation is a result of the financial situation of the Rwandan state after the genocide. In 1996, Rwanda was officially declared as the poorest country in the world. How in this context did Rwandan and international agents manage the memory of the genocide and especially the corpses? Considering the absence of a state-led individual identification program, how did exhumations occur and for what purposes? Who were the agents of exhumations in Rwanda? But also, what is the history behind the conservation of bones and corpses in genocide memorials? Based upon the study of the public archives of the National Commission for the Fight against the Genocide, this paper sheds some historical light on the debates around the management of genocide corpses in Rwanda since 1994.Less
Contrary to other countries that suffered mass violence in the late twentieth century, such as Bosnia, the issue of individual identification or DNA identification has never been considered seriously by the national and international agents of the memory in Rwanda. The lack of forensic investigation is a result of the financial situation of the Rwandan state after the genocide. In 1996, Rwanda was officially declared as the poorest country in the world. How in this context did Rwandan and international agents manage the memory of the genocide and especially the corpses? Considering the absence of a state-led individual identification program, how did exhumations occur and for what purposes? Who were the agents of exhumations in Rwanda? But also, what is the history behind the conservation of bones and corpses in genocide memorials? Based upon the study of the public archives of the National Commission for the Fight against the Genocide, this paper sheds some historical light on the debates around the management of genocide corpses in Rwanda since 1994.
Merida M. Rua
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199760268
- eISBN:
- 9780199950256
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199760268.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1946 two distinct migrant groups arrived in the City of Neighborhoods from the island of Puerto Rico. One, a small group of University of Puerto Rico graduates who had earned scholarships to ...
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In 1946 two distinct migrant groups arrived in the City of Neighborhoods from the island of Puerto Rico. One, a small group of University of Puerto Rico graduates who had earned scholarships to attend the University of Chicago; the other, contract laborers recruited by an employment agency for household and factory work. It was the beginning of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, a virtual colony of the US’s Caribbean empire in the industrial heartland. This work, focusing on the end of World War II to the present, is a story of everyday Puerto Ricans and their evolving sense of place and personhood within the setting of a rich range of social experiences, among them migration, settlement, urban renewal, gentrification, political mobilizations, and community commemorations. It traces the complex ethnoracial dimensions of identity and space and their necessary connections; thus, for example, exploring the ways in which whites, African Americans, and particularly Mexican immigrants and migrants, in part, shaped the meanings of Puerto Rican-ness even as Puerto Ricans modified their own identities. Identidad and communities are considered in relation to one another rather than in isolation. This study shows the varied ways Puerto Ricans came to understand their identities and rights within and beyond the city they made home.Less
In 1946 two distinct migrant groups arrived in the City of Neighborhoods from the island of Puerto Rico. One, a small group of University of Puerto Rico graduates who had earned scholarships to attend the University of Chicago; the other, contract laborers recruited by an employment agency for household and factory work. It was the beginning of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, a virtual colony of the US’s Caribbean empire in the industrial heartland. This work, focusing on the end of World War II to the present, is a story of everyday Puerto Ricans and their evolving sense of place and personhood within the setting of a rich range of social experiences, among them migration, settlement, urban renewal, gentrification, political mobilizations, and community commemorations. It traces the complex ethnoracial dimensions of identity and space and their necessary connections; thus, for example, exploring the ways in which whites, African Americans, and particularly Mexican immigrants and migrants, in part, shaped the meanings of Puerto Rican-ness even as Puerto Ricans modified their own identities. Identidad and communities are considered in relation to one another rather than in isolation. This study shows the varied ways Puerto Ricans came to understand their identities and rights within and beyond the city they made home.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
With a focus on early representations of the Boston Massacre and the Battle of Bunker Hill, this chapter argues that the individuals publicly honored as heroes of the Revolutionary War in the period ...
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With a focus on early representations of the Boston Massacre and the Battle of Bunker Hill, this chapter argues that the individuals publicly honored as heroes of the Revolutionary War in the period up to the War of 1812 were primarily those with recognized political, social, and cultural authority: elite white men. Early accounts of these pivotal Revolutionary events noted the presence, but not generally the political agency, of people of color. This chapter develops this argument by exploring the commemoration (or lack thereof) of the Revolutionary contributions of Crispus Attucks and black military veterans, including Primus Hall, Peter Salem, Salem Poor, and Edom London. The sources include both visual culture and print culture, including an analysis of John Trumbull's painting of Bunker Hill.Less
With a focus on early representations of the Boston Massacre and the Battle of Bunker Hill, this chapter argues that the individuals publicly honored as heroes of the Revolutionary War in the period up to the War of 1812 were primarily those with recognized political, social, and cultural authority: elite white men. Early accounts of these pivotal Revolutionary events noted the presence, but not generally the political agency, of people of color. This chapter develops this argument by exploring the commemoration (or lack thereof) of the Revolutionary contributions of Crispus Attucks and black military veterans, including Primus Hall, Peter Salem, Salem Poor, and Edom London. The sources include both visual culture and print culture, including an analysis of John Trumbull's painting of Bunker Hill.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter shows how the idea that slavery was fundamentally at odds with local heritage shaped abolitionist efforts to gain public support in the 1830s and 40s. In Boston, as the construction of ...
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This chapter shows how the idea that slavery was fundamentally at odds with local heritage shaped abolitionist efforts to gain public support in the 1830s and 40s. In Boston, as the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument coincided with the development of an antislavery movement, abolitionists (led by William Lloyd Garrison) and monument‐builders (including Daniel Webster) vied for control over the American Revolution's legacy. Abolitionists' success in using Revolutionary rhetoric to get fugitive slave George Latimer freed from jail in 1842 was followed by another round of antislavery agitation in 1843, when abolitionists charged President John Tyler with bringing a slave to the Bunker Hill Monument's dedication. In examining the ensuing controversy about the commemoration of the Revolution, this chapter contends that abolitionists and their opponents were contesting not only the future course of the country but also the relationship between the present and the past.Less
This chapter shows how the idea that slavery was fundamentally at odds with local heritage shaped abolitionist efforts to gain public support in the 1830s and 40s. In Boston, as the construction of the Bunker Hill Monument coincided with the development of an antislavery movement, abolitionists (led by William Lloyd Garrison) and monument‐builders (including Daniel Webster) vied for control over the American Revolution's legacy. Abolitionists' success in using Revolutionary rhetoric to get fugitive slave George Latimer freed from jail in 1842 was followed by another round of antislavery agitation in 1843, when abolitionists charged President John Tyler with bringing a slave to the Bunker Hill Monument's dedication. In examining the ensuing controversy about the commemoration of the Revolution, this chapter contends that abolitionists and their opponents were contesting not only the future course of the country but also the relationship between the present and the past.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The epilogue follows the commemoration of Crispus Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, and other Revolutionary‐era blacks through the Civil War and beyond. It also considers how William Cooper Nell's call for ...
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The epilogue follows the commemoration of Crispus Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, and other Revolutionary‐era blacks through the Civil War and beyond. It also considers how William Cooper Nell's call for black citizenship was — and was not — fulfilled in the formation of the Fifty‐fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in 1863. Drawing on the famous monument to the Fifty‐fourth and other post‐Civil War memorials in Boston, the epilogue assesses the ongoing significance of commemorative spaces and activities in Massachusetts.Less
The epilogue follows the commemoration of Crispus Attucks, Phillis Wheatley, and other Revolutionary‐era blacks through the Civil War and beyond. It also considers how William Cooper Nell's call for black citizenship was — and was not — fulfilled in the formation of the Fifty‐fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in 1863. Drawing on the famous monument to the Fifty‐fourth and other post‐Civil War memorials in Boston, the epilogue assesses the ongoing significance of commemorative spaces and activities in Massachusetts.
Mérida M. Rúa
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199760268
- eISBN:
- 9780199950256
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199760268.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter is about commemorations as a central ritual of community in Puerto Rican Chicago. At wakes, for example, there were lively debates about what had been a life of success or a life of ...
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This chapter is about commemorations as a central ritual of community in Puerto Rican Chicago. At wakes, for example, there were lively debates about what had been a life of success or a life of failure, and, hence, the experience of the community itself. There were also many celebrations of continuing lives, weddings, baby showers, and birthday parties. It examines how commemorations, the sharing and making of memories, influence the social dimensions of identity. Contests over identity, power, and recognition, mobilize memory, as both place and practice, to establish legitimacy and to affirm claims to belonging. Commemorations show that, even in death, there is social life and that, even as identity is a matter of becoming, so it is deeply historical.Less
This chapter is about commemorations as a central ritual of community in Puerto Rican Chicago. At wakes, for example, there were lively debates about what had been a life of success or a life of failure, and, hence, the experience of the community itself. There were also many celebrations of continuing lives, weddings, baby showers, and birthday parties. It examines how commemorations, the sharing and making of memories, influence the social dimensions of identity. Contests over identity, power, and recognition, mobilize memory, as both place and practice, to establish legitimacy and to affirm claims to belonging. Commemorations show that, even in death, there is social life and that, even as identity is a matter of becoming, so it is deeply historical.
Philip Waller
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199541201
- eISBN:
- 9780191717284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541201.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines why this period saw the establishment of so many memorials in honour of particular writers, together with societies designed to promote the study of their work and to advance ...
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This chapter examines why this period saw the establishment of so many memorials in honour of particular writers, together with societies designed to promote the study of their work and to advance their reputations. It begins by considering how and why Rupert Brooke was elevated to iconic status during the Great War; then Victorian and Edwardian centenary commemorations of Robert Burns and Shakespeare are analysed, along with anniversaries relating to a host of other writers such as Byron, Keats, and Shelley, Dr Johnson, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, Robert Browning, and Thackeray. Edmund Gosse and Robertson Nicoll were protagonists in several of these movements, which were seized on by publishers to market special editions and collected works; but there were many differences of opinion over how best to commemorate this or that writer, and these are pinpointed and explained.Less
This chapter examines why this period saw the establishment of so many memorials in honour of particular writers, together with societies designed to promote the study of their work and to advance their reputations. It begins by considering how and why Rupert Brooke was elevated to iconic status during the Great War; then Victorian and Edwardian centenary commemorations of Robert Burns and Shakespeare are analysed, along with anniversaries relating to a host of other writers such as Byron, Keats, and Shelley, Dr Johnson, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, Robert Browning, and Thackeray. Edmund Gosse and Robertson Nicoll were protagonists in several of these movements, which were seized on by publishers to market special editions and collected works; but there were many differences of opinion over how best to commemorate this or that writer, and these are pinpointed and explained.
Ville Vuolanto
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199582570
- eISBN:
- 9780191595271
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582570.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter scrutinizes Late Roman childhood and the expectations placed on children by their nearest relatives. As source material letters and homilies of the late fourth-and early fifth-century ce ...
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This chapter scrutinizes Late Roman childhood and the expectations placed on children by their nearest relatives. As source material letters and homilies of the late fourth-and early fifth-century ce ecclesiastical writers are used. Three aspects of the connection between children and familial memory are examined: children as carriers of the name and family traditions, children as tokens for memory by their very existence, and children as guarantors of after-death commemoration through patrimony and burial arrangements. As a result, the traditional practices of the non-Christianized (elite) families of the earlier Roman Empire appear to have been largely maintained: memory, carried on by one's progeny, was still a central way of understanding one's immortality after death, even among the Christians.Less
This chapter scrutinizes Late Roman childhood and the expectations placed on children by their nearest relatives. As source material letters and homilies of the late fourth-and early fifth-century ce ecclesiastical writers are used. Three aspects of the connection between children and familial memory are examined: children as carriers of the name and family traditions, children as tokens for memory by their very existence, and children as guarantors of after-death commemoration through patrimony and burial arrangements. As a result, the traditional practices of the non-Christianized (elite) families of the earlier Roman Empire appear to have been largely maintained: memory, carried on by one's progeny, was still a central way of understanding one's immortality after death, even among the Christians.
PETER MARSHALL
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198207733
- eISBN:
- 9780191716812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207733.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This concluding chapter emphasises how changing attitudes towards the dead represented a revolution of sensibilities, and led to the creation of new patterns of church life; new forms of public and ...
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This concluding chapter emphasises how changing attitudes towards the dead represented a revolution of sensibilities, and led to the creation of new patterns of church life; new forms of public and civic commemoration; new uses of ritual space; new possibilities for cultural expression. Against the suggestion of some literary critics and post-revisionist historians — that the space left by the demise of purgatory was readily filled with functional substitutes — it argues that purgatory's disappearance represented a cultural change of profound significance. Yet the Reformation did not lead to a compete ‘separation’ of the living and the dead, and substantial continuities remained. The book concludes with the paradoxical reflection that the religious and cultural problem represented by the dead could be both a force for radical change, and for cautious conservatism, and that the necessity of dealing with the dead was a profound influence on the complex character of the English Reformation as a whole.Less
This concluding chapter emphasises how changing attitudes towards the dead represented a revolution of sensibilities, and led to the creation of new patterns of church life; new forms of public and civic commemoration; new uses of ritual space; new possibilities for cultural expression. Against the suggestion of some literary critics and post-revisionist historians — that the space left by the demise of purgatory was readily filled with functional substitutes — it argues that purgatory's disappearance represented a cultural change of profound significance. Yet the Reformation did not lead to a compete ‘separation’ of the living and the dead, and substantial continuities remained. The book concludes with the paradoxical reflection that the religious and cultural problem represented by the dead could be both a force for radical change, and for cautious conservatism, and that the necessity of dealing with the dead was a profound influence on the complex character of the English Reformation as a whole.
Elizabeth Vlossak
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199561117
- eISBN:
- 9780191595035
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199561117.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The image of the Alsatian woman continues to be used as a cultural emblem, yet her historical and political significance, whether real or invented, has largely been forgotten. Moreover, Alsatian ...
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The image of the Alsatian woman continues to be used as a cultural emblem, yet her historical and political significance, whether real or invented, has largely been forgotten. Moreover, Alsatian memory and the French memory of Alsace have become almost exclusively masculine. This masculinization is especially apparent in the way Alsatians remember the period of Nazi re-annexation. The representatives of Nazi oppression are the tragic Malgré-nous, Alsatians and Mosellans drafted by force into the Wehrmacht, while women's experiences and collective identity fall outside the realm of national memory and commemoration. Marianne or Germania concludes by questioning this continued exclusion. As the book has demonstrated, by taking a gendered approach to Alsace's fascinating history, in which both men and women have played a variety of roles, we gain further insight into the complexities of German and French nation-building, and the processes of national identity formation.Less
The image of the Alsatian woman continues to be used as a cultural emblem, yet her historical and political significance, whether real or invented, has largely been forgotten. Moreover, Alsatian memory and the French memory of Alsace have become almost exclusively masculine. This masculinization is especially apparent in the way Alsatians remember the period of Nazi re-annexation. The representatives of Nazi oppression are the tragic Malgré-nous, Alsatians and Mosellans drafted by force into the Wehrmacht, while women's experiences and collective identity fall outside the realm of national memory and commemoration. Marianne or Germania concludes by questioning this continued exclusion. As the book has demonstrated, by taking a gendered approach to Alsace's fascinating history, in which both men and women have played a variety of roles, we gain further insight into the complexities of German and French nation-building, and the processes of national identity formation.
Ann Rigney
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644018
- eISBN:
- 9780191738784
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644018.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Chapter 6 concentrates on public recollections of Scott the author. It begins with an analysis of the strategies Scott used to brand himself as the ‘author of Waverley’, and then goes on to give an ...
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Chapter 6 concentrates on public recollections of Scott the author. It begins with an analysis of the strategies Scott used to brand himself as the ‘author of Waverley’, and then goes on to give an account of key public commemorations of his memory: his funeral in 1832, the erection of the enormous Edinburgh monument 1840–6, and the lavish centenary celebrations of 1871, which is placed within a broader framework of the nineteenth-century cult of centenaries and the role of literary canons. An analysis is given of these performances of memory that highlights their role in creating embodied communities in conjunction with various ‘imagined communities’. The centenary of 1871 in particular showed how ‘Scott’ as memory site had become a transnational point of reference which different parties used to stake out their position and articulate their identity within the Empire and the imagined confederation of the English-speaking world.Less
Chapter 6 concentrates on public recollections of Scott the author. It begins with an analysis of the strategies Scott used to brand himself as the ‘author of Waverley’, and then goes on to give an account of key public commemorations of his memory: his funeral in 1832, the erection of the enormous Edinburgh monument 1840–6, and the lavish centenary celebrations of 1871, which is placed within a broader framework of the nineteenth-century cult of centenaries and the role of literary canons. An analysis is given of these performances of memory that highlights their role in creating embodied communities in conjunction with various ‘imagined communities’. The centenary of 1871 in particular showed how ‘Scott’ as memory site had become a transnational point of reference which different parties used to stake out their position and articulate their identity within the Empire and the imagined confederation of the English-speaking world.
Rebecca Clifford
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199679812
- eISBN:
- 9780191759987
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199679812.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Cultural History
This concluding chapter reviews the key findings of the book. The book has endeavoured to show that Holocaust commemorations provide a compelling example of the uses and abuses of the memory of the ...
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This concluding chapter reviews the key findings of the book. The book has endeavoured to show that Holocaust commemorations provide a compelling example of the uses and abuses of the memory of the wartime past in the post-Cold War era. An examination of the evolution of these commemorations reveals much about the rapidly-transforming environment of Europe in the era since 1989; in particular, these commemorations show that there are very real links between the collapse of the Cold War political system, and the perception that the state's role in wartime crimes against Jews needed to be acknowledged officially for a range of reasons, whether to combat racism and anti-Semitism in the present, to respond to revisionist approaches to the history of Fascism or of Vichy, or to begin to articulate a new set of values for a changing political climate.Less
This concluding chapter reviews the key findings of the book. The book has endeavoured to show that Holocaust commemorations provide a compelling example of the uses and abuses of the memory of the wartime past in the post-Cold War era. An examination of the evolution of these commemorations reveals much about the rapidly-transforming environment of Europe in the era since 1989; in particular, these commemorations show that there are very real links between the collapse of the Cold War political system, and the perception that the state's role in wartime crimes against Jews needed to be acknowledged officially for a range of reasons, whether to combat racism and anti-Semitism in the present, to respond to revisionist approaches to the history of Fascism or of Vichy, or to begin to articulate a new set of values for a changing political climate.
