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Under the aegis of the post-apartheid government, much emphasis has been placed on the transformation and democratisation of the heritage sector in South Africa since 1994. The emergent new landscape of memory relies heavily on commemorative monuments, memorials and statues aimed at reconciliation, nation-building and the creation of a shared public history. But not everyone identifies with these new symbolic markers and their associated interpretation of the past. Drawing on a number of theoretical perspectives, this book critically investigates the flourishing monument phenomenon in South Africa, the political discourses that fuel it; its impact on identity formation, its potential benefits, and most importantly its ambivalences and contradictions.
Price: $66.00
Pages: 410
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Afrika-Studiecentrum Series
Publication Date:
14 December 2009
ISBN: 9789004178564
Format: Paperback
"Marschall, program director of Cultural and Heritage Tourism at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, critically examines South Africa's official attempts to reshape its commemorative landscape in the postapartheid era through projects such as the Hector Pieterson Memorial, Constitution Hill, the Sharpeville Massacre Memorial, Freedom Park, and the National Women's Monument. According to Marschall, what makes the effort to reconstitute the heritage sector unique "is the systematic, self-conscious, deliberate, and methodical manner in which new monuments engage with the legacy of the past." In particular, postapartheid heritage development has focused on the production of memorials that symbolize the liberation struggle against apartheid, colonialism, and racism in general. Designed to promote nation building and reconciliation, many of these projects, according to Marschall, have instead exposed the political fractures in postapartheid society. Nonetheless, South Africa has largely avoided the tendency to sanitize or romanticize its heritage and has instead made an earnest effort "to come to terms with previously denied, neglected or shameful aspects of [its] past." Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - J. O. Gump, University of San Diego, in: CHOICE (Nov. 2010)
"This book is an in-depth, masterful analysis and discussion of the landscape of memorialisation and commemoration in South Africa in the two decades since the end of Apartheid. For her analysis Marschall draws on a variety of sources including interviews and statements by government and heritage officials, marketing material, feedback from the public as well as the analysis of the symbolism and physical form of numerous South African monuments and memorials from both a local and international perspective. While much of this discussion has been presented in article form elsewhere, this book brings all aspects of the project together in a dense, multi-layered volume that addresses the political and socially contentious nature of South Africa’s memory landscape as well as the potential that such memorialisation offers for nation-building and reconciliation." - Natalie Swanepoel, University of South Africa, in: African Studies Quarterly, Volume 13, Issue 3 (Summer 2012)
"This book is an in-depth, masterful analysis and discussion of the landscape of memorialisation and commemoration in South Africa in the two decades since the end of Apartheid. For her analysis Marschall draws on a variety of sources including interviews and statements by government and heritage officials, marketing material, feedback from the public as well as the analysis of the symbolism and physical form of numerous South African monuments and memorials from both a local and international perspective. While much of this discussion has been presented in article form elsewhere, this book brings all aspects of the project together in a dense, multi-layered volume that addresses the political and socially contentious nature of South Africa’s memory landscape as well as the potential that such memorialisation offers for nation-building and reconciliation." - Natalie Swanepoel, University of South Africa, in: African Studies Quarterly, Volume 13, Issue 3 (Summer 2012)
Sabine Marschall, Dr.Phil. (1992) in History of Art, Eberhardt-Karls Universität Tübingen, is Associate Professor and programme director of Cultural and Heritage Tourism at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. She has published extensively on South African art, architecture, cultural heritage and commemoration.