Remembering or Forgetting the British Empire? (Post)Colonial/Imperial Memorials in Britain and Beyond
In Britain and the former British Empire, numerous monuments commemorate personalities, events and institutions connected with colonial/imperial times. Recent campaigns and movements like Rhodes Must Fall or Topple the Racists have highlighted the significance as well as the conflicting meanings of such sites of memory, and they are part of more general debates on interpretations of the imperial/colonial past and the post-imperial/colonial present or future. In this seminar, we will use key concepts of cultural memory studies to analyse individual long-standing and recently added sites of memory (e.g. the Colston statue in Bristol, the Memorial Gates in London, Independence Square in Accra, Cecil Rhodes statues in South Africa, Coronation Park in New Delhi, …) and the discourses surrounding them. This shall allow us to reach a better understanding of different interpretations of and strategies of dealing with the British Empire and its aftermath, but also to gain general insights into the functions and workings of memorials in contemporary societies.
- Trainer DS: Hofmeister Frauke