College
College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Department
Communication Arts
Abstract
Public memory is a complex concept that concerns the events and individuals that are present or important in the minds and lives of groups of people. Public memory can put certain ideas or narratives on display about these events and people that further influence the public mind. For example, there has recently been much controversy surrounding public sites of history, namely those commemorating the Civil War era Confederacy. This has sparked much debate about the way we commemorate histories and how we choose what histories are commemorated. The aim of this project is to examine and understand not only the types of events and people that are commemorated in Alabama's public memory, but also the ways in which these things are portrayed. By examining these aspects of public memory, we can understand what has driven problematic commemoration of old histories and use that knowledge to create more nuanced and informed sites of public commemoration in the future.
Recommended Citation
Lang, Brendan
(2022)
"The Rhetorical Landscape of Public Memory,"
Perpetua: The Journal of Undergraduate Research at UAH: Vol. 6:
Iss.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://louis.uah.edu/perpetua/vol6/iss1/4