CANS 406 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Canadian War Memorials, United States Capitol, Imagined Communities
22 May 2018
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7.Monday January 22nd: Political Power and Collective Memory
Big questions: to what extent can states instill “official” collective memories in citizens?
- The myth-symbol complex
- Official vs. vernacular memory
- Nations as imagined communities
- Power over symbols
The Myth-symbol complex
- The combination of myths, memories, values, and symbols that define not only who is a
member of the group but what it means to be a member. (Kaufman)
- What does it meant to be canadian?
Official vs. vernacular Memory
- Official memory:
- Institutional memory for Lebo
- Kind of memory that gets put forward by political elites
- Memory and identity that is put forward by the state
- Attempt to reduce the power of competing interests that threaten the realization
of their goals
- Intended to bind communities together and staibilie the status quo or social
cohesion
- Vernacular memory
- Collective memories that originate from below
- Not necessarily state sanctioned, and represent an array of specialized interests
- Ex. War of 1812
- In the US Study guide for citizenship:
- Length of time, declares war on great britain because they were arming
the american indians to fight the americans.
- US trade was disrupted and the US Capitol was burned
- Americans won the war
- First time after the revolutionary war that america had to fight a foreign
country to protect its independence
- Official memory
- Battle of New Orleans
- Popular vernacular memory
- Talk about the battle of new orleans as a large day, stayed as a holiday
for a few decades after
- It was a victory for andrew jackson and the US
- 8th of january song that talks about the war
- Themes of fierce british attacking with americans swiftly outsmarting them
as underdogs
- Americans as overwhelmingly good and defending the homeland
- Popular vernacular memory
- Ex. War of 1812: The Fight for Canada
- In the Canadian Study guide for immigration
- Canadians fought to resist bonapartes bid to dominate europe
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- American attempt to conquer canada failed
- Americans thought it would be easy but they were mistaken
- Canadian song about war of 1812
- Done by the arrogant worms
- Burned it to the ground as main course, referring to burning the capital
down
War, What war?
- UK study guide
- Much longer than anything else for the war of 1812 because the larger context of it being
french vs. english
- More important to look at what’s left out then what is included
Imagined Communities
- Nations as a collective can remember things you weren’t present for.
- These memories form the basis of national solidarity which is in turn maintained and
continued through rituals and commemoration
- Constructivism: nations as modern, socially constructed imagined communities
(Anderson)
- They’re imagined because our understanding of what a group or nation is, isn’t
bound in completely objective fact. It changes and fluctuates over time
- What’s more important is what is chosen to emphasize and
- Origins in historical conditions and ideas
- state predates the nation
- Contemporary idea
- Nationalism or the nation is a tactic of the state
- Popular sovereignty, nationalism
- Need to create a myth for the nation
- Idea of the nation as cementing societies, only became possible because of
historical conditions and ideas (printing press, newspapers etc..)
- Externalized memory in time and space because it's the only kind of memory that
history can create anymore
- That’s why you get holidays and stuff, need to imagine this sacred
community
- Why do we need imagined communities?
- Helps run the country
Symbolic Capital
- A society’s medium of honour, prestige, and status. Groups and individuals compete for
symbolic capital to achieve or maintain power and legitimacy
- Symbols as a form of capital, groups compete to build up their own power.
- Want a monument so that people feel they have more power
- How do they do this?
Power over Place
- Who has the power to destroy, move, or build a monument?
- Who has the power to decide what parts of history is emphasized? Who has the power
to choose the holidays?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
7. monday january 22nd: political power and collective memory. The combination of myths, memories, values, and symbols that define not only who is a member of the group but what it means to be a member. (kaufman) Kind of memory that gets put forward by political elites. Memory and identity that is put forward by the state. Attempt to reduce the power of competing interests that threaten the realization of their goals. Intended to bind communities together and staibilie the status quo or social cohesion. Not necessarily state sanctioned, and represent an array of specialized interests. Length of time, declares war on great britain because they were arming the american indians to fight the americans. Us trade was disrupted and the us capitol was burned. First time after the revolutionary war that america had to fight a foreign country to protect its independence.
