We have long saved-and curated-objects from wars to commemorate the
war experience. These objects appear at national museums and
memorials and are often mentioned in war novels and memoirs.
Through them we institutionalize narratives and memories of
national identity, as well as international power and purpose.
While people interpret war in different ways, and there is no
ultimate authority on the experiences of any war, curators of war
objects make different choices about what to display or write
about, none of which are entirely problematic, good, or accurate.
This book asks whose vantage points on war are made available, and
where, for public consumption; it also questions whose war
experiences are not represented, are minimized, or ignored in ways
that advantage contemporary militarism. Christine Sylvester looks
at four sites of war memory-the National Museum of American
History, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Arlington National
Cemetery, and selected novels and memoirs of the American wars in
Vietnam and Iraq-to consider the way war knowledge is embedded in
differing sites of memory and display. While the museum shows war
aircraft and a laptop computer used by a journalist covering the
American war in Iraq, visitors to the Vietnam Memorial or Arlington
Cemetery find more prosaic and civilian items on view, such as baby
pictures, slices of birthday cake, or even car keys. In addition,
memoirs and novels of these wars tend to curate ghastly horrors of
wars as experienced by soldiers or civilians. For Sylvester, these
sites of war memory and curation provide ways to understand
dispersed war authority and interpretation and to consider which
sites invite viewers to revere a war and which reflect personal
experiences that show the undersides of these wars. Sylvester shows
that scholars, policymakers, and other citizens need to consider
different types of situated memory and knowledge in order to fully
grasp war, rather than idealize it.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
