Remembering World War II: The rhetoric and politics of national commemoration at the turn of the 21st century

Quarterly Journal of Speech

Volumn 88, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 393-409

  Biesecker, Barbara A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF IOWA   (United States)

Author keywords

Citizenship; Collective memory; Material culture; Multiculturalism; Nation building; Saving Private Ryan; The Greatest Generation; Visibility politics; Visual rhetoric; Women in Military Service for America Memorial; World War II

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040076653     PISSN: 00335630     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00335630209384386     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. "The design concept for the memorial is an ensemble of a lowered plaza surrounding the Rainbow Pool, parapet walls surmounted by transparent architectural arms of stone and metal and two monumental memorial arches. The memorial will include iconography, inscriptions, and sculpture as part of the final design… . Bronze laurel wreaths are suspended from the oculus of each arch … [which] overlook the memorial plaza and Rainbow Pool… . The floor of the memorial plaza is an orchestrated blend of green spaces and paved surfaces surrounding the Rainbow Pool. A central ceremonial area is placed at the western apex of the memorial plaza. A curvilinear granite wall is embedded into the waterfalls that navigate the vertical transition between the Reflecting Pool and the Rainbow Pool. Inscriptions honoring the fallen and all who served and a flame of freedom will be incorporated into the ceremonial area… . In the center of the plaza, the fountains of the reconstructed Rainbow Pool will be restored to their former splendor as part of the memorial." "About the Memorial: World War II Memorial Homepage" at http://www.wwiimemorial. com, 3 September 1999.
2. George F. Will, "The Statue Sweepstakes," Newsweek, 26 August 1991, 64.
3. nd sess., 1994, 2.
4. Substantively and stylistically, public debate or lack thereof over the World War II Memorial differs markedly from the lengthy and often heated political struggles that emerged over other proposals to recognize the nation's fallen heroes by raising a structure on their behalf on the Mall, e.g., the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Women in Military Services for America Memorial. An interesting exception in the case of the WWII Memorial was delivered by Judy Scott Feldman, chairwoman of the National Coalition to Save Our Mall, during her testimony before the Commission of Fine Arts. She objected vigorously to the proposed memorial's "imperial and triumphal design," which was "unacceptably reminiscent of Fascist and Nazi regimes." Cited in Irvin Molotsky, "Panel Backs World War II Memorial on Mall in Washington," New York Times, 21 July 2000, A1.
5. Molotsky, 1. Across the country, 43 newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today, printed at least one article or editorial opposing the site, many of them reprints.
6. Rolland Kidder, "War Memorial Will Be In Its Proper Setting," Buffalo News, 6 June 1997, 3C.
7. "Remarks by President Clinton at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery," Federal News Service, 11 November 1995. Online. Lexis. 22 July 2000.
8. The memorial's statement of purpose reads: "The World War II Memorial will be the first national memorial dedicated to all who served in the armed forces and Merchant Marine of the United States during World War II and acknowledging the commitment and achievement of the entire nation. All military veterans of the war, the citizens on the home front, the nation at large, and the high moral purpose and idealism that motivated the nation's call to arms will be honored. Symbolic of the defining event of the 20th century in American history, the memorial will be a monument to the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of the American people, to the common defense of the nation and to the broader causes of peace and freedom from tyranny throughout the world. It will inspire future generations of Americans, deepening their appreciation of what the World War II generation accomplished in securing freedom and democracy. Above all, the memorial will stand for all time as an important symbol of American national unity, a timeless reminder of the moral strength and awesome power that can flow when a free people are at once united and bonded together in a common and just cause." "About the Memorial: WWII Memorial Homepage" at http://www.wwiimemorial.com, 3 September 1999.
9. "Clinton Salutes Veterans, Dedicates Memorial Site," Los Angeles Times, 12 November 1995, 4A.
10. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
11. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
12. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
13. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
14. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
15. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
16. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
17. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
18. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
19. st Century Capitalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998); Arthur A. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York: Norton, 1992); and Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1993).
20. I borrow this terminology from Marita Sturken's Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epiedemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
21. Another way to describe my analysis is that it seeks to extend Michael McGee's 1975 call for the rhetorical accounting of the discursive production of a (people) by attending not only to the "material forces, events, and themes in history only as they have already been mediated or filtered by the Leader whose words [we have typically] studied" (249), but also to those other enunciative sites through which national affiliation is today being produced. Michael McGee, "In Search of 'The People': A Rhetorical Alternative," Quarterly Journal of Speech 61 (1975): 235-49.
22. There is a growing theoretical and critical literature on the relationship between the nation, the media, and the discursive production of the citizen-subject in the late twentieth century. This analysis takes several of its cues from Lauren Berlant's analysis of infantile citizenship in The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997), Lawrence Grossberg's account of the politically disaffected citizen in We Gotta Get Out of this Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture (New York: Routledge, 1992), and Toby Miller's treatment of the cultural citizen in Technologies of Truth: Cultural Citizenship and the Popular Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
23. There is a growing theoretical and critical literature on the relationship between the nation, the media, and the discursive production of the citizen-subject in the late twentieth century. This analysis takes several of its cues from Lauren Berlant's analysis of infantile citizenship in The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997), Lawrence Grossberg's account of the politically disaffected citizen in We Gotta Get Out of this Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture (New York: Routledge, 1992), and Toby Miller's treatment of the cultural citizen in Technologies of Truth: Cultural Citizenship and the Popular Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
24. There is a growing theoretical and critical literature on the relationship between the nation, the media, and the discursive production of the citizen-subject in the late twentieth century. This analysis takes several of its cues from Lauren Berlant's analysis of infantile citizenship in The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1997), Lawrence Grossberg's account of the politically disaffected citizen in We Gotta Get Out of this Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture (New York: Routledge, 1992), and Toby Miller's treatment of the cultural citizen in Technologies of Truth: Cultural Citizenship and the Popular Media (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
25. Jon Meacham, "Caught in the Line of Fire," Newsweek, 13 July 1998, 50.
26. Christopher Caldwell, "Spielberg at War," Commentary 106 (October 1998): 48.
27. Martin Arnold, "'Private Ryan' Revives a Genre," New York Times, 30 July 1998, E3.
28. Arnold, E3.
29. James Wolcott, "Tanks for the Memories," Vanity Fair 456 (August 1998): 73.
30. Henrick Hertzberg, "Theatre of War," New Yorker, 27 July 1998, 31.
31. Jean Bethke Elshtain, "Spielberg's America," Tikkun 13 (Nov/Dec 1998): 73.
32. Wolcott, 75.
33. Meacham, 50.
34. Berlant, 57.
35. In a book-length analysis of the return of WWII now in progress, I attend at length to the question of the representation of women and its political entailments. I note here the sexism and, at times, unabashed misogyny at work throughout the film but most visible in scenes during which combat abates and members of the ranger unit engage in "intimate" conversation. Consider, for example, the Brooklyn bad boy's recounting of Mrs. Rachel Cherbowitz's advice from the dressing room of his mother's shop that "if [he's] ever scared" he "close [his] eyes and remember these" "44EEs" or "massive things"; and Ryan's jovial recollection of "the last night the four [Ryan brothers] were together," memorable for the brothers' thwarted rape of Alice Jardine, "a girl who just took a nose dive from the ugly tree and hit every branch coming down." Furthermore, although there are no fantasy rape scenarios in The Greatest Generation, I will argue that certain women fare no better there. I will suggest that the subtle but crucial shift from a neo-conservative rhetoric of "family values" to a rhetoric of the "national family" that I analyze in this essay is effected in part by the strategic re-membering and repositioning of female bodies and desire. Out of this re-rembering emerges a newly-determined abject feminine, the "feminist," who refuses to submit her agency to the will of the national family.
36. Saving Private Ryan structurally elides the sixties and seventies, those socially and politically tumultuous decades in U.S. history during which citizens literally took to the streets.
37. Edward Rothstein, "Rescuing the War Hero from 1990's Skepticism," New York Times, 3 August 1998, E2.
38. Brokaw since has edited and published several other best-selling books for which World War II is a central reference, organizing theme, or point of departure. See, for example, An Album of Memories: Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation (New York: Random House, 2001)
39. and The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections (New York: Random House, 1999), both reissued in audio format.
40. Richard Goldstein, "World War II Chic," Village Voice, 19 January 1999, 47.
41. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation (New York: Random House, 1998), 15. All subsequent references to this text will be indicated parenthetically in the essay.
42. Michel Foucault, "Technologies of the Self," in Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, ed. Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hutton (London: Tavistock Publications, 1988), 18.
43. Toby Miller, The Well-Tempered Self: Citizenship, Culture, and the Postmodern Subject (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993).
44. My discussion of disincorporation is indebted to Michael Warner's theorizing in "The Mass Public and the Mass Subject," in The Phantom Public Sphere, ed. Bruce Robbins (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), 234-56.
45. The dismantling of the welfare state and privitization of social responsibility is sometimes boldly, sometimes subtly, but always anecdotically encouraged. See, for example, the story of James and Dorothy Dowling, in the midst of which Brokaw writes: "James Dowling was orphaned soon after he was born. His mother died when he was only six months old and his father was unable to care for this baby and his four brothers and sisters. In those simpler times, when much of social welfare was a matter of good-hearted people, the plight of James and his siblings was made known in the church. The minister announced that someone had to take in these children. James and two of his brothers were taken home by the Conklins, Clarence and Anna … (46, emphasis added). Or Brokaw's closing words to "The Dumbos," a vignette recounting the postwar trials and tribulations of four couples "in the small South Dakota city of Yankton": "Outside of our own families, to those of us growing up in Yankton at the time, these World War II couples were emblematic of the values that shaped our lives. In many respects, their marriages and the way they conducted them were a form of community service" (249, emphasis added).
46. Annette Kuhn, Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination (London and New York: Verso, 1995), 17.
47. The literature on the relation of the visual image or the photograph and the verbal text is extensive. Some key works are: Roland Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972); Roland Barthes, "The Rhetoric of the Image," Image-Music-Text (New York: Noonday, 1977), 32-37; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977); W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Doubleday, 1977); and John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
48. The literature on the relation of the visual image or the photograph and the verbal text is extensive. Some key works are: Roland Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972); Roland Barthes, "The Rhetoric of the Image," Image-Music-Text (New York: Noonday, 1977), 32-37; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977); W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Doubleday, 1977); and John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
49. The literature on the relation of the visual image or the photograph and the verbal text is extensive. Some key works are: Roland Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972); Roland Barthes, "The Rhetoric of the Image," Image-Music-Text (New York: Noonday, 1977), 32-37; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977); W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Doubleday, 1977); and John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
50. The literature on the relation of the visual image or the photograph and the verbal text is extensive. Some key works are: Roland Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972); Roland Barthes, "The Rhetoric of the Image," Image-Music-Text (New York: Noonday, 1977), 32-37; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977); W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Doubleday, 1977); and John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
51. The literature on the relation of the visual image or the photograph and the verbal text is extensive. Some key works are: Roland Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972); Roland Barthes, "The Rhetoric of the Image," Image-Music-Text (New York: Noonday, 1977), 32-37; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977); W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Doubleday, 1977); and John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
52. The literature on the relation of the visual image or the photograph and the verbal text is extensive. Some key works are: Roland Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972); Roland Barthes, "The Rhetoric of the Image," Image-Music-Text (New York: Noonday, 1977), 32-37; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1977); W.J.T. Mitchell, Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Susan Sontag, On Photography (New York: Doubleday, 1977); and John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993).
53. Wendy Brown, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995), 57.
54. Linda Witt, ed., The Day the Nation Said "Thanks!" A History and Dedication of the Women In Military Service For America Memorial (Washington, D.C.: Military Women's Press, 1999), 96.
55. On the minimalist aesthetic and the rhetoric of monumental material culture see, for example, Carole Blair, Marsha S. Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci, Jr., "Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype," Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 263-88; John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992); John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994); Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Marita Sturkin, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
56. On the minimalist aesthetic and the rhetoric of monumental material culture see, for example, Carole Blair, Marsha S. Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci, Jr., "Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype," Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 263-88; John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992); John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994); Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Marita Sturkin, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
57. On the minimalist aesthetic and the rhetoric of monumental material culture see, for example, Carole Blair, Marsha S. Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci, Jr., "Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype," Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 263-88; John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992); John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994); Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Marita Sturkin, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
58. On the minimalist aesthetic and the rhetoric of monumental material culture see, for example, Carole Blair, Marsha S. Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci, Jr., "Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype," Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 263-88; John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992); John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994); Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Marita Sturkin, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
59. On the minimalist aesthetic and the rhetoric of monumental material culture see, for example, Carole Blair, Marsha S. Jeppeson, and Enrico Pucci, Jr., "Public Memorializing in Postmodernity: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Prototype," Quarterly Journal of Speech 77 (1991): 263-88; John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992); John R. Gillis, ed., Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994); Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Marita Sturkin, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997).
60. Witt, 94.
61. Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), 7.
62. I am not arguing that WIMS never could perform a radical, interruptive politics. I am claiming that at this particular time and place, in the context of the cultural formation of which it is a part, it is not doing so now. One implication of this analysis for thinking about rhetoric generally is that the popular "polysemy thesis" often begs rather than answers the question, what rhetorical work is being done by or through this text? Although grasping the polysemic nature of all discourse and practice is an important first step, a rigorous rhetorical analysis proceeds to discern those forces that operate provisionally to secure, through processes of articulation, disarticulation, and rearticulation, the effectivity of the text, utterance, or practice. For a cogent review of the conversation in the field that stops short of addressing the question of effectivity, see Leah Ceccarelli, "Polysemy: Multiple Meanings in Rhetorical Criticism," Quarterly Journal of Speech 84 (1998): 395-415.
63. "In this matter of the visible, everything is a trap." Jacques Lacan, Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, ed. Jacques-Allain Miller, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Norton, 1978), 93.
64. Self Guided Tour: Women in Military Service for America Memorial (Washington, D.C.: Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc.). All subsequent references in the essay to the Self Guided Tour will be indicated by Tour. The booklet is not paginated.
65. The exhibit's hand-held script is replete with various gestures of pointing: "See the uniform of Navy nurse Doris Yetter"; "Notice the hand-made clothespin used by Madeline Ullom"; "Also in the exhibit is a pair of custom-made mosquito boots, worn by Army nurses in Africa"; "Notice the photograph of a woman packing a parachute"; etc. For an analysis of the deployment of the constative utterance in museums of natural history and fine art, see Mieke Bal, Double Exposures: The Subject of Cultural Analysis (New York and London: Routledge, 1996).
66. I borrow the term "exhibition rhetoric" from Bruce Ferguson's "Exhibition Rhetorics: Material Speech and Utter Sense," in Thinking About Exhibitions, ed. Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson, and Sandy Nairne (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), 175-90. There he links Enzensberger's expanded concept of the "cultural industries," which includes "advertising, education, and any institutional use of media techniques intended for vast audiences or what is now often referred to cynically as 'infotainment'" (176) and a classical conception of rhetoric as "a strategic system of representation" (176) in order to argue that "[t]he will to influence is at the core of any exhibition" (179).
67. The Integration Act exhibit, originally placed next to a separate exhibit documenting the history of the memorial's emergence, is soon to be moved to a display case situated between the WWII and new Korean War exhibits. Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught, Ret. (President, Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation, Inc.), interview by author, Washington, D.C., 6 June 2000.
68. Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 3.
69. Michel Foucault, "Film and Popular Memory: An Interview with Michel Foucault," trans. Martin Jordan, Radical Philosophy (1975): 25.