Writing and Critical Thinking: Monuments, Memorials, and Commemoration

Introduction

Topical Introduction

This module will examine the variety of ways in which monuments, memorials and other forms of public commemoration are used to tell stories about the past and influence memories, culture, and politics in the present day. We will take a comparative perspective, using readings and case studies from a number of different societies and cultures. The readings for the class will highlight the complexity of processes of commemoration and memorialization. Although designers of monuments and memorials may portray them as telling the “true” version of historical events, the end results often hide controversies that may have been part of the process of creating these structures. Similarly, the meanings attached to monuments and memorials can change dramatically over time, as societies change and these structures are reinterpreted through new lenses. This module will also invite students to grapple with broader questions regarding the relationship between power, politics, and the (often contested) authority to articulate a “true” version of the past.

Some of the questions we will be exploring are:

1) What groups, institutions, or individuals are given the authority to design and build memorials and monuments? How is this connected to culture and politics, and to the way in which a particular society is organized? Whose opinions, views, and histories might be ignored in the construction of a memorial or monument?

2) Who is the intended (and actual) audience for a particular monument or memorial? Are monuments and memorials usually designed with a national audience in mind, or can they be built with other audiences in mind? (across empires and global communities, within local settings)

3) Do monuments and memorials require a fixed, permanent, and specific physical place in order to be meaningful? In the age of the Internet, is it possible to have memorials and monuments that operate without being attached to a particular physical place?

4) How do states and governments use monuments and memorials to promote an “official” view of history? How might minority, marginalized, or victimized groups use monuments and memorials to challenge the “official” view and offer their own interpretations of the past?

5) How do monuments and memorials provide a society or group with an understanding of war or other acts of violence? How might monuments and memorials be used to promote peace and reconciliation efforts in the aftermath of war?

6) Is it necessary for monuments and memorials to give a singular version of events? Is it possible for a single monument or memorial to express multiple, even conflicting, interpretations of history?

This list of questions is not intended to be exhaustive: it is my hope that you will develop your own questions (and arguments) from the readings to add to this list!

Unit 1

Memory and History

Rhetorical objectives:

  • How to read closely by noticing details
  • How to find key terms
  • How to develop meaningful questions about a text
  • How to discover a motive for an essay
  • How to find a thesis
  • How to use specific examples to support a claim
  • How to write an introduction
  • How to organize ideas into an essay (brainstorming, organizing, drafting, revising)

Week 1: Introduction

  • Meeting 1
    Initial Discussion: analyzing memorialization in cultural context
    Reading: Gordon Harvey, “Elements of the Essay” [4 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Close reading; Discussion of Paper 1 assignment, Thesis, Key terms
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: David Rieff, “After 9/11: The Limits of Remembrance” [4 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Motive, Close Reading

Week 2: Memory, History, and Power

  • Meeting 1
    Initial Discussion: analyzing memorialization in cultural context
    Reading: Andrew J. Bacevich, “Naming Our Nameless War” [7 pages]
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “The Power in the Story” in Silencing the Past [30 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Motive and Close reading (continued)

Week 3: Monuments of the Nation, Stories of the State (1)

  • Meeting 1
    Writing Lesson: Structuring an argument
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: Adeline Low Hwee Cheng, “The Past in the Present: Memories of the 1964 ‘Racial Riots’ in Singapore.” [28 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Introductions

Week 4: Paper 1 Conferences

  • Student Conferences on First Draft of Paper 1
  • Final draft of Paper 1 is due one week after your conference

Paper 1 will be a close reading/ analysis of one text related to commemoration or memorialization

Unit 2

Contested Memorialization

Rhetorical objectives:

  • Writing a conclusion
  • Learning to distinguish different sources, and reading techniques necessary for each
  • Learning how to bring different sources together in analysis
  • Learning to weigh evidence and produce analysis
  • Understanding how to develop an argument with a reader in mind
  • Developing a clear, individual style

Week 5: Monuments of the Nation, Stories of the State (2)

  • Meeting 1
    Reading: William Styron, “Slavery’s Pain, Disney’s Gain” [5 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Introduction to Paper 2; the comparative/lens essay
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “The Presence in the Past” [13 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Evidence

Week 6: Memorialization, Museums and War

  • Meeting 1
    Reading: Katharine McGregor, “Representing the Indonesian Past: The National Monument History Museum From Guided Democracy to the New Order” [32 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Analysis
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: Daniel Seltz, “Remembering the War and the Atomic Bombs: New Museums, New Approaches.” [19 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Development

Week 7: Alternative Memories: Memorials, Justice, Resistance, and Reconciliation

  • Meeting 1
    Reading: Judy Barsalou and Victoria Baxter (United States Institute of Peace), “The Urge to Remember: The Role of Memorials in Social Reconstruction and Transitional Justice.” [22 pages]
    Writing Lesson: Reflecting
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: Leslie Dwyer, “Building a Monument: Intimate Politics of Reconciliation in Post-1965 Bali” [21 pages]
    Writing lesson: Style, expression, and the mechanics of writing

Week 8: Paper 2 Conferences

  • Student Conferences on First Draft of Paper 2
  • Final draft of Paper 2 is due one week after your conference

Paper 2 will ask students to juxtapose, comparatively, two case studies in terms of a larger conceptual framework

Unit 3

Contested Memorialization

Unit 3: Research Project

Rhetorical objectives:

  • Understanding the nature of independent research
  • Searching for and selecting appropriate sources
  • Developing a complex argument
  • Imagining a community of readers
  • Formatting an academic text

Week 9: Introduction to Research

  • Meeting 1
    Introduction to Paper 3
  • Meeting 2
    Reading: Essays from Folio
    Writing Lesson: The Research Essay

Week 10: Foundations of the Research Paper

  • Meeting 1
    Writing Lesson: Library Research Workshop and Exercise
  • Meeting 2
    Writing Lesson: Planning an argument using multiple sources

Week 11: Developing the Research Paper/ Presentations of Research Topics (1)

  • Meeting 1
    Writing Lesson: Referencing, citation, and academic ethics
  • Meeting 2
    Writing Lesson: Reflecting, Conclusions

Week 12: Presentations of Research Topics

  • Meeting 1
    Student presentations of research paper topics
  • Meeting 2
    Student presentations of research paper topics

Week 13: Conferences

  • Student Conferences on First Draft of Paper 3
  • Final draft of Paper 3 is due one week after your conference

Paper 3 is a research essay on a topic of students’ choice regarding memorialization or commemoration.

Readings

Details of Readings

Details of Readings (available on IVLE or distributed in class):

Bacevich, Andrew J. “Naming Our Nameless War.” Guernica, 29 May 2013.

Barsalou, Judy and Victoria Baxter (United States Institute of Peace). “The Urge to Remember: The Role of Memorials in Social Reconstruction and Transitional Justice.” Washington, D.C., 2007

Dwyer, Leslie. “Building a Monument: Intimate Politics of Reconciliation in Post-1965 Bali.” Transitional Justice: Global Mechanisms and Local Realities after Genocide and Mass Violence. Ed. Alexander Hinton. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 227-248.

Low, Adeline Hwee Cheng. “The Past in the Present: Memories of the 1964 ‘Racial Riots’ in Singapore.” Contestations of Memory in Southeast Asia. Eds Roxana Waterson and Kwoh Kian-Woon. Singapore: NUS Press, 2012. 201-229.

McGregor, Katharine E. “Representing the Indonesian Past: The National Monument History Museum from Guided Democracy to the New Order.” Indonesia, Vol. 75 (April 2003). 91-122

Rieff, David. “After 9/11: The Limits of Remembrance.” Harper’s Magazine, August 2011. 47-50.

Seltz, Daniel. “Remembering the War and the Atomic Bombs: New Museums, New Approaches.” Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space. Ed. Daniel J. Walkowitz and Lisa Maya Knauer. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. 127-145.

Styron, William. “Slavery’s Pain, Disney’s Gain.” In Havanas in Camelot. New York, Random House, 2008. 127-131

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995. 1-30, 141-153.

Assignments

Attendance and Participation

I expect everyone to attend class and to arrive on time. (I will take attendance at the beginning of Each class). You are permitted three (3) absences from class during the semester without penalty. Additional absences from class will result in a reduction of your course grade at the rate of 1/2 of a grade per absence. (Exceptions will only be made in cases of family or medical emergency).If you are absent from class for any reason, it is your responsibility to contact me regarding missed class material and assignments.

Papers and homework assignments should be handed in on time. Unless there are exceptional circumstances and you have made special arrangements with me, half a letter grade will be deducted from your grade for the assignment for each day that it is late.

This is not intended to be a lecture-only course, and discussion will be a major part of each class session. I invite and expect your active participation in these discussions. You will not necessarily agree with the opinions expressed by your fellow students, the class readings, or the instructor, and you should not be shy about expressing disagreement. At the same time, I expect you to treat others with courtesy and to keep an open mind. You should also feel free to ask questions or seek clarification at any point.

Assignments

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

For each assigned module reading, you will be asked to compose and submit two short(1-3 sentences) discussion questions. These questions are not meant to be simple factual ones (e.g. “What happened in Indonesia in 1942?”), although you are always welcome to ask me these kinds of questions in class. Instead, this is an opportunity for you to develop an original question about something in the readings that surprised, challenged, puzzled, or provoked you. Your questions can be open-ended, and do not need to be ones for which there is one “correct” answer. (They’re meant to encourage further discussion and debate!) I encourage you to be creative, ambitious, critical, and skeptical in your questions!

Your questions should be posted to the online module Discussion Board on IVLE by 8 PM the day before class. They will not receive individual grades, but you are required to submit them for each module reading assignment, and they will count as a significant part of your participation grade for the class.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

One of the main goals of this course is to develop your ability to construct an argumentative essay based on a close, critical reading of texts. We will be discussing the techniques of critical writing in class throughout the semester, including how to form and develop an evidence-based argument, summarize and paraphrase material, use primary and secondary sources, and compare and contrast texts.

You will have three writing assignments for this class, each one requiring you to develop an evidence-based argument using one or more texts. For each of your three papers, you will be submitting two drafts: the first will be a rough draft, which will be reviewed and commented upon in either a peer review session with your classmates or a one-on-one conference with me. Making use of the suggestions of your classmates and myself, you will revise your rough draft and submit a second, final draft that will be graded. Although your rough draft will not receive a grade, you must submit a rough draft in order for your final draft to be accepted. You are also required to participate in the peer review of your classmates’ rough drafts. (We will discuss this process in more detail in class).

Assessment:

Paper 1: 20%-- a brief response to a close reading of a text (3-4 pages)
Paper 2: 25%-- a longer response to a close reading of two texts (5-6 pages)
Paper 3: 35%-- an independent research paper using multiple sources (7-9 pages)
Participation: 10%-- including submitted discussion questions, in-class discussion, and peer review for Paper 2
Presentations: 10%-- presentations of topics for Paper 3

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