War and Cultural Heritage

Biographies of Place

Marie Louise Stig Sørensen, Dacia Viejo-Rose

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781316191262
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

The reconstruction of society after conflict is complex and multifaceted. This book investigates this theme as it relates to cultural heritage through a number of case studies relating to European wars since 1864. The case studies show in detail how buildings, landscapes, and monuments become important agents in post-conflict reconstruction, as well as how their meanings change and how they become sites of competition over historical narratives and claims. Looking at iconic and lesser-known sites, this book connects broad theoretical discussions of reconstruction and memorialisation to specific physical places, and in the process it traces shifts in their meanings over time. This book identifies common threads and investigates their wider implications. It explores the relationship between cultural heritage and international conflict, paying close attention to the long aftermaths of acts of destruction and reconstruction and making important contributions through the use of new empirical evidence and critical theory.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction The Impact of Conflict on Cultural Heritage: A Biographical Lens
• Chapter One Dybbøl: The Construction and Reconstruction of a Memorial Landscape
• Chapter Two ‘The Cemetery of France’: Reconstruction and Memorialisation on the Battlefield of Verdun (France)
• Chapter Three Something Old, Something New: The Materiality of Tradition and Power in the Post–Civil War Reconstruction of Gernika’s Foru Plaza
• Chapter Four The Dresden Frauenkirche as a Contested Symbol: The Architecture of Remembrance after War
• Chapter Five The Prison of Carabanchel (Madrid, Spain): A Life Story
• Chapter Six ‘A Heritage of Resistance’ – The Changing Meanings of Belgrade’s Generalštab
• Chapter Seven Grand Ruins: Ledra Palace Hotel and the Rendering of ‘Conflict’ as Heritage in Cyprus
• Chapter Eight Changing Meaning of Second World War Monuments in Post-Dayton Bosnia Herzegovina: A Case Study of the Kozara Monument and Memorial Complex
• Chapter Nine Imagining Community in Bosnia: Constructing and Reconstructing the Slana Banja Memorial Complex in Tuzla
• Postscript 1: The Time of Place
• Postscript 2: When Memory Takes Place
• Bibliography
• Index