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Revisiting memoricide: The everyday killing of memory.

Authors :
Webster, Scott
Source :
Memory Studies; Dec2024, Vol. 17 Issue 6, p1408-1428, 21p
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

Memoricide, it seems, is memory made rubble and ash. Its emblematic imagery is of scenes many would find familiar: burning ash-snow from Sarajevo's Vijecnica ; satellite images of Palmyra's missing structures; the exploding Bamiyan Buddhas. Physically altering space is understandably a highly visible tactic. However, when explicitly built into definitions, the emphasis on physical destruction has been on specific forms targeted: archival institutions, monuments, memorials and heritage sites. This article revisits memoricide as a range of converging physical, social and discursive strategies. It introduces 'everyday' memoricide – the normalisation of memory erasure as mundane practices – which ordinarily masks its intelligibility as memoricide through 'common sense' or 'greater good' discursive frames. The sacred Djab Wurrung trees, threatened by the Victorian State Government's Western Highway project, and a felled Directions Tree in particular, provide a still unfolding case study within the broader history of Australian memoricide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
17506980
Volume :
17
Issue :
6
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Memory Studies
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
180731673
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231184564