Neoliberalism, Postmodernity, and the Contemporary Memorial-Building Boom

Clewer explores the various ways the sublime is manifest in contemporary memorial architecture as well as its philosophical and political implications. She shows how the national monument is being transformed at a time when the nation-state and national identity are under extreme scrutiny.

This book analyses the nature as well as the political and philosophical implications of the contemporary international memorial-building boom. Developing a distinctive theoretical and methodological approach, it explores the complex interplay between neoliberalism, postmodernism and nationalism in some of the most iconic national memorials and memorial-museums to have emerged in the US and Germany over the last 35 years. Situating and analysing the current renaissance in memorialisation in relation to the contemporary ideological conjuncture, the book interrogates the meaning and purpose of contemporary memorial forms and practices. In so doing it goes against the grain of the dominant literature on memorialisation, challenging the widely accepted premises which underpin this consensus. Commonly praised for their non-ideological and non-nationalistic stance, ambiguity and affective power, the book points rather to their role in reaffirming the nation and the neoliberal status quo.