Structures of Memory
Understanding Urban Change in Berlin and Beyond
Published on 12. April 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-0-8047-5277-0 (ISBN)
Description
In many different parts of the world people cordon off sites of great suffering or great heroism from routine use and employ these sites exclusively for purposes of remembrance. The author of this book turns to the landscape of contemporary Berlin in order to understand how some places are forgotten by all but eyewitnesses, whereas others become the sites of public ceremonies, museums, or commemorative monuments. The places examined mark the city's Nazi past and are often rendered off limits to use for apartments, shops, or offices. However, only a portion of all "authentic" sites-places with direct connections to acts of resistance or persecution during the Nazi era-actually become designated as places of official collective memory. Others are simply reabsorbed into the quotidian landscape. Remembering leaves its marks on the skin of the city, and the goal of this book is to analyze and understand precisely how.
Reviews / Votes
"'Structures of memory' refers to the 'material projects' that memorialize either victims of the Nazis or heroes of the resistance to them. To show that it takes to establish such memorials, Jennifer A. Jordan examines both sites that have and have not been successfully memorialized. Their success, she demonstrates, depends on a consensus that they're not too large, too inconvenient, or too much in the way or more profitable uses."-German Studies Review "[An] impressive scholarly accomplishment"-Canadian Journal of Sociology Online "[Jordan's] book is an intelligent and welcome contribution to the sociological study of collective memory."-American Journal of Sociology "This is an original and fascinating work that will be a welcome addition to the ever-growing conversation on the cultural functions of memorialization, official and vernacular memorial processes, and the relation between remembering and forgetting. Jordan reminds us, as well she should, that what does not gain a place in the landscape is as revealing as what does finally gain the prestige of a public site."-Edward T. Linenthal, Indiana UniversityMore details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
31 illustrations, 2 maps
Dimensions
Height: 227 mm
Width: 170 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
390 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-5277-0 (9780804752770)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jennifer A. Jordan is Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Content
@fmct:Contents @toc4:Acknowledgments iii @toc2:1. Landscapes of Remembering and Forgetting 1 2. Blank Slates and Authentic Traces: Memorial Culture in Berlin After 1945 000 3. Persistent Memory: Pre-1989 Memorials After the Fall of the Wall 000 4. Changing Places: New Memorials Since 1989 000 5. Forgetting Places 000 6. Berlin and Beyond 000 @toc4:Notes 000 Select Bibliography 000 Index 000