Public Memory: Testimony, Memorial, Ritual

This seminar explores theories and practices of public memory by studying three related topics and media. Questions about the relation of history and memory are pursued by reading verbal testimony. Questions about commemoration are developed by looking at material objects and public spaces. Questions about embodied memory are explored by witnessing trauma, performance, and ritual. Readings will include Freud, Nora, Derrida, Halbwachs, Laub, Savage, Connerton, Taylor and Young. Rhode Island will provide our field for understanding how public memory works in verbal, material, and embodied signs of the past and present.