Memory and Commemoration: The Politics of Historical Monuments

Abstract

This study will focus on the politics of historic monuments as places of historical memory, identity and violence.  The study used a mixed-methods study that involved both a quantitative statistical modelling technique and a qualitative thematic-analysis one to come up with patterns in distributions, symbolism, funding, gender representation and acknowledging of monuments.  Findings reveal the highest number of political and war memorials are in metropolitan centres, and cultural and religious monuments in the rural.  Historical studies indicate that construction growths occur after periods of warfare whereas gender studies show female figures are still not keenly represented in commemorative statues.  Quantitative models demonstrate that the inflow of government funding is greatly connected to higher attendance rates. On one hand, the initiatives led by the NGOs diversify symbolic content even with limited resources.  Indeed, international recognition, particularly by UNESCO, was found to have significant impact on investments in conservation and publicity on a global scale.  The findings are examined by qualitative discourse study as well that shows that monuments can simultaneously propagate major narratives and serve as disputed spaces of minority discourse.  The work also discovered that de-commemoration, that is, the removal and reinterpretation of monuments, does not erase the consideration of justice and collective identity, but rather continues the discourse.  The combination of statistical data with thematic categorization demonstrates how monuments become the meeting point of politics, culture, and even ethics, which allow shaping memoryscapes on a national and global level.  On the whole, the results make a great contribution to the heritage and memory research as they show that monuments are not fixed symbols but dynamic symbols of collective history constantly under redefinition.