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Preservation or Destruction of lieux de mémoire : Contested Spaces in the Realm of Memory

2015; Routledge; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13260219.2015.1092643

2151-9668

Andrea Hepworth,

Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

This article explores the reasons behind the destruction or preservation of sites of memory, using the examples of Carabanchel Prison, which was built by forced labour between 1940 and 1944 to house political prisoners, many of whom were tortured and executed, and the Valley of the Fallen, which has been at the centre of intense debates concerning its future in recent times. It argues that political memory influences the official perception of places such as prisons as ‘disavowed places of memory’, which facilitates their destruction, whereas other places are embraced as symbols of cultural heritage. This paper will show that the competing ways of attaching value to lieux de mémoire are, on the one hand, influenced by the political memory of the state in an attempt to shape national identity and, on the other, by the public attempting to give voice to a chapter of history in danger of being forgotten.