Monumental Nationalism

Abstract

A monument is “the permanent structure, building, erections … made at the place to mark the memory of a historical event, action, place or person …”1 As physical structures, monuments are the embodiment of foundational myths, memories, and philosophies, and serve as official sites for the commemoration of war victories and the martyrs who died for the state, among other functions.2 The proliferation of statuary to memorialize a certain sociopolitical version of the past occurred throughout late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century Europe and the Americas.3 The best examples of these monuments are the Statue of Liberty in New York; Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London; the Latvian Freedom Monument; the Liberty Monument at Liberty Square in San Salvador; the Freedom Monument in Rousse, Bulgaria; the Bangladesh Liberation Monument; the Monument of the Martyrs (Maquam E’chahid) in Algiers, Algeria; the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex in Stalingrad/Volgograd in Russia; and the statue of a woman lifting a child in her arms in Kampala, Uganda.