Re-inscribing a Monument: Vimy in the Canadian Consciousness

This essay focuses on the efficacy of Walter Allward’s immense Canadian National Vimy Memorial built at Vimy Ridge in France and unveiled in 1936. Like other battlefield memorials located far from their primary audiences, the Vimy Memorial must deliberately intervene into Canadian consciousness in o...

Full beskrivning

Sparad:
Bibliografiska uppgifter
I publikationen:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/eccs,
Huvudupphovsman: Coutu, Joan
Materialtyp: Article ou chapitre numérique
Språk:Anglais
Publicerad: Études canadiennes / Canadian Studies 2016
Ämnen:
Länkar:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Beskrivning
Sammanfattning:This essay focuses on the efficacy of Walter Allward’s immense Canadian National Vimy Memorial built at Vimy Ridge in France and unveiled in 1936. Like other battlefield memorials located far from their primary audiences, the Vimy Memorial must deliberately intervene into Canadian consciousness in order to remain relevant. Drawing on Pierre Nora’s notion of “successive presents,” I examine the means by which that intervention occurs over time and how, also exacerbated by the often great distance between monument and audience, the monument functions as a heterotopic space. The essay also addresses types of memory and consciousness – state, national, collective, and individual – and their inherent malleability, and the points at which they might become fused.