Overview
- Analyses contributions to the Berlin Holocaust Memorial Competitions of the 1990s
- Explores the relationship between cultural memory, empathy and the representation of difficult histories
- Discusses the controversy surrounding dedicating the memorial exclusively to murdered Jews
Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies (PMMS)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book is a study of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial Competitions of the 1990s, with a focus on designs that kindle empathetic responses. Through analysis of provocative designs, the book engages with issues of empathy, secondary witnessing, and depictions of concentration camp iconography. It explores the relationship between empathy and cultural memory when representations of suffering are notably absent. The book submits that one design represents the idea of an uncanny memorial, and also pays attention to viewer co-authorship in counter-monuments. Analysis of counter-monuments also include their creative engagement with German history and their determination to defy fascist aesthetics. As the winning design for The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is abstract with an information centre, there is an exploration of the memorial museum. Callaghan asks whether this configuration is intended to compensate for the abstract memorial’s ambiguity or to complement the design’s visceral potential. Other debates explored concern political memory, national memory, and the controversy of dedicating the memorial exclusively to murdered Jews.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Mark Callaghan is an art historian who has taught at several leading institutions, including Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. He specializes in contemporary memory culture and twentieth century art history.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Empathetic Memorials
Book Subtitle: The Other Designs for the Berlin Holocaust Memorial
Authors: Mark Callaghan
Series Title: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50932-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50931-6Published: 13 November 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-50934-7Published: 13 November 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-50932-3Published: 12 November 2020
Series ISSN: 2634-6257
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6265
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 259
Number of Illustrations: 19 b/w illustrations
Topics: Memory Studies, History of World War II and the Holocaust, Cultural Heritage