The Politics of War Ruins: Architecture and Memory of French Villages Destroyed by War

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology/Architecture", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Within the vast landscape of war destruction, a small number of places are preserved as heritage sites honoring both the physical space and the memory of what happened there. In this sense, they are distinct and local, related to particular events and experiences of war violence. They also participate in the broader space of war memory. These preservation choices, the meanings invested in the sites, and their changing curation over time reveal the complicated practices and uses of war heritage. Critical heritage studies often asks the question, “What is the work heritage does?” In response, this paper offers are reading of French heritage sites damaged in WWI and WWII (Fleury-devant-Douaumont, Valchevrière, Fay, Nauroy, Oradour-sur-Glane, and Falaise) and examines the work they do as didactic, affective, and moral landscapes. It argues the ideological power of architectural ruins when wielded as war heritage

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Archaeology/Architecture

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow