This article analyses The Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, opened in its present form in 2007, to commemorate the massacre perpetrated by the Japanese in 1937, when in the course of six weeks more than 300.000 harmless civilians were brutally killed. The Memorial is a highly complex semiotic object: it includes a large museum but is also, and perhaps above all, a huge thematic park that occupies an extremely wide surface area of 74,000 square meters. Through a close reading of the site, this article shows how the Nanjing Memorial, more than the conservation and transmission of a tragic, traumatic memory, is mostly a monument to nationhood, an important step in the building of a national identity, a veritable discourse for, and about, the nation.
Violi P. (2012). Educating for Nationhood. A semiotic Reading of The Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders. JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL MEDIA, MEMORY, AND SOCIETY, 4, 2, 41-68 [10.3167/2012.040204].
Educating for Nationhood. A semiotic Reading of The Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders
VIOLI, MARIA PATRIZIA
2012
Abstract
This article analyses The Memorial Hall for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, opened in its present form in 2007, to commemorate the massacre perpetrated by the Japanese in 1937, when in the course of six weeks more than 300.000 harmless civilians were brutally killed. The Memorial is a highly complex semiotic object: it includes a large museum but is also, and perhaps above all, a huge thematic park that occupies an extremely wide surface area of 74,000 square meters. Through a close reading of the site, this article shows how the Nanjing Memorial, more than the conservation and transmission of a tragic, traumatic memory, is mostly a monument to nationhood, an important step in the building of a national identity, a veritable discourse for, and about, the nation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.