Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories

(Hardback)

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Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories vividly illustrates that a nations history is more complicated than the simple binary of remembered/forgotten. Some parts of history, while not formally recognized within a commemorative landscape, haunt those landscapes by virtue of their ephemeral or displaced presence. Rather than being discretely contained within a formal sites, these memories remain public by lingering along the edges and within the crevices of commemorative landscapes. By integrating theories of haunting, place, and public memory, this collection demonstrates that the National Mall, often referred to as the nations front yard, might better be understood as the nations attic because it hides those issues we do not want to address but cannot dismiss. The neatly ordered installations and landscaping of the National Mall, if one looks and listens closely, reveal the messiness of US history. From the ephemeral memories of protests on the Mall to the displaced but persistent presences of inequality, each chapter in this book examines the ways in which contemporary public life in the US is haunted by incomplete efforts to close the book on the past.

Reviews

We are, as Roger C. Aden suggests in the introduction to Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall, forever haunted by the past. We cannot escape the past, even when parts of it are dispersed, displaced, and downplayed. There may be no more compelling example of this truth than the commemorative landscape of the National Mall, which is the apogee of official appeals to national memory. For even as its monuments of marble and stone aggressively tell one story of our nation, other stories can be heard in the spaces betwixt and between these national landmarks. In a truly innovative collection of essays, Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall thoughtfully explores these alternative stories, illuminating the complex and contested nature of public memory in the process. A truly fascinating and unexpected examination of the most famous landscape of memory in the US. -- Brian L. Ott, Texas Tech University
The authors in this provocative volume work to disrupt the memorial space of the National Mall by invoking the various voices who have used this space as a site of dissent and contestation and by attending to the memorial spaces often downplayed for bypassed. In so doing, these authors remind us that invoking the past is never simple and that understanding the power of public memory requires careful attention to its rhetoric. -- Kendall R. Phillips, Syracuse University
The impressive monuments in the heart of Washington, DC are familiar to most Americans. Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall is a highly original collection that actually reveals many events connected to this notable place that were displaced from public view. As such it reveals fractures in our national memory not apparent in the overall grandeur of the site. -- John Bodnar, Indiana University

Author Bio

Roger C. Aden is professor in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University.