Posted: September 13th, 2017

The Rhetoric and Ideology of Public Monument

The Rhetoric and Ideology of Public Monument

For the next paper, select a peace or war memorial or monument of your choice, and analyze it in the

following ways in order to prove your thesis:  Is it a monument to peace or war?  Each of which is worth

25 points, and will require between 1 ½ and 2 pages each; they are guides, not individual questions to be

answered.  Your paragraphs should be coherent in supporting your thesis.
I.    Kairos.  For a public monument, there are three time zones: the war itself; the initiation of the

monument until its opening; today.  A monument looks backward to a war that is over.  For this section,

you need to research to find out the results of the war—was it a victory, a loss, or a tie?  What

motivated the memorial?  How was it received at the time?  How is it judged today?  We should also

know why you chose it.  What in your life today attracts you to your choice?
II.    Intentions.  Monuments are inherently judicial in that they try to capture an attitude toward a

past event, but they are essentially, and by definition, epideictic or ceremonial.  Therefore, their

purpose is to point to our highest values and praise the people who endorse those values. Being asked

to remember people implies that they are important.  In addition, however, a memorial has a

deliberative message that can be intuited.  As Aristotle said, “Sometimes to praise is to urge a course of

action.”  What course of action does your memorial imply is necessary? In this section, you will discuss

the purposes of the memorial.  Some of the intentions are explicit (as we can see from the Maya Lin

video); others, implicit.
III.    Persuasion.  In this section, analyze ethos, logos, and pathos.  Ethos is measured not by the

artist; but by the representation of the soldiers or citizens or victims.  What message do we get about

the people or person celebrated or memorialized?  As for logos, you can focus on all the written

material that surrounds the memorial—sometimes heavily inscribed, as in the Gallipoli monument; other

times, adjacent or surrounding the monument.  The logos can also refer to the “facts of the memory,”

though they may be controversial.  For pathos, you have a wide open window.  Art is designed to have

an effect, and that effect on the viewer, participant, student, scholar should be carefully considered in

the design.  (We hear Lin talk about what feelings she wants to evoke.)  In this section, you can also

discuss how the monument makes you feel.  A war memorial has a double message; it honors the soldiers

but calls us to peace at the same time.  You decide which message you get from your memorial.  Also,

does it inspire hope or fear (use Bloch)?
IV.    Imagery and figuration.  Unlike your last paper, the figuration won’t be primarily in language.

Indeed, we use sculpture when words are insufficient.  Any monument will include figures, images of

humans; however, they will be transformed symbolically; they will be exaggerated to make a point.  In

fact, they will be turned from people into symbols.  Symbolism, in its ideal form, creates an image

beyond rhetoric or occasion.  The symbol suggests an idea.  Think of the Statue of Liberty, for instance.

If it works, that image will carry forth its message regardless of time and place.  So symbolism is an

attempt to move beyond rhetoric.  But it does not move beyond persuasion.  It is still a sign and has

meaning, based on the audience, and the artist.  Other natural objects may be heightened and renewed

too—animals, plants, flowers, and so on.  On the other hand, as we see in the 9/11 Monument, shapes

themselves take on meaning.  Of course, with Maya Lin’s work, you have the use of water.  So in this

section, try to analyze the symbolic purposes of the shapes, materials, and representations of humans,

plants, or animals.  You may need some research to understand the symbolism of certain imagery.

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