When we study commemoration, we are often observing physical monuments or written words. These artifacts are incredibly insightful for understanding how certain cultures understood the act of remembering and honoring. However, by simply observing and studying these pieces of commemoration at face value, we miss out on crucial context. The artifacts represent the commemoration that ended up existing\u2014but what about the alternatives that didn\u2019t end up existing? What about the conversations around that commemoration? What about later changes to the commemoration? These questions can all be captured in one word: controversy. It is hard to imagine a single piece of commemoration that wouldn\u2019t be controversial to someone. Therefore, there is always another story to any commemoration, one which we must look at to better understand the society that commemoration existed in.<\/p>\n
By studying the controversies surrounding memorials, we gain insight into the context they were created in. I have chosen three pieces of commemoration for this website which are all examples of the role controversy plays in commemoration, and which prove the importance of understanding the controversies surrounding a memorial. Bowdoin\u2019s flagpole is, on paper, a simple and beautiful memorial for fallen WWI soldiers, but the controversy around it reveals a fascinating approach to commemoration and a complex power struggle in the college. The Assyrian relief of Ashurnasirpal II is a simple portrait of a king, but looking more closely at the stone scars reveals a deliberate attempt from a rival tribe to spiritually strip the king\u2019s power. Controversy is perhaps most important when looking at modern commemoration: The Ballad of the 20th<\/sup> Maine technically passed easily to become Maine\u2019s state ballad, but the few dissidents show that ignorance about the U.S.\u2019s history is still deeply entrenched, all the way up to government. These three pieces of commemoration, outlined in more detail on their respective pages, represent the importance of studying controversy and audience response to commemoration in conjunction with the commemoration itself. It is only through stepping back and analyzing the whole controversial history of any commemoration that we can truly understand the society that produced it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we study commemoration, we are often observing physical monuments or written words. These artifacts are incredibly insightful for understanding how certain cultures understood the act of remembering and honoring. However, by simply observing and studying these pieces of commemoration at face value, we miss out on crucial context. The artifacts represent the commemoration that … Continue reading Overview – Controversy and Commemoration<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/classics-2238-spring-2021-jbutler\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}