‘It was Never Just About the Statue’: Ethos of historical figures in public debates on contested cultural objects

Collective, historical memory becomes increasingly important in public debates on cultural heritage across many countries. Their key elements are contested cultural objects – such as statues or memorials – which construct nations’ memory that governs societal processes such as decolonisation or de-S...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Discourse & society 2022-03, Vol.33 (2), p.193-214
Main Authors: Pereira-Fariña, Martín, Koszowy, Marcin, Budzynska, Katarzyna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Argumentation
Collective memory
Cultural heritage
Debates
Decolonization
Discourse analysis
Discourse strategies
Memorials
Political discourse
Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich (1879-1953)
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Summary:Collective, historical memory becomes increasingly important in public debates on cultural heritage across many countries. Their key elements are contested cultural objects – such as statues or memorials – which construct nations’ memory that governs societal processes such as decolonisation or de-Stalinization. This paper analyses arguments about five such objects in UK, US, South Africa, Poland and Spain in order to identify discursive strategies used to argue whether to remove or to keep them. Large-scale comparative discourse analysis reveals that the ethos of historical figures – such as the Confederates or Joseph Stalin – commemorated by these cultural objects plays an essential and primary role in these debates. We argue that values associated with the character of these figures determine the dynamics of discourse and its close analysis allows us to uncover what societies are struggling with when handling artefacts of the past in the present day.
ISSN:0957-9265
1460-3624
DOI:10.1177/09579265221088143