A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF COMMEMORATION Lucy Britt A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science. Chapel Hill 2021 Approved by: Susan Bickford Jeff Spinner-Halev Michael Lienesch Alexander Kirshner © 2021 Lucy Britt ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Lucy Britt: A Political Aesthetic of Commemoration (Under the direction of Susan Bickford) Since at least the Cold War and with renewed fervor in recent years, citiZens have acted on the urge to topple memorials and other visual reminders of historical violence. However, societies show no signs of ceasing to erect new commemorative markers, and people continue to live in physical environments saturated with reminders of historical mass violence. What such markers around us say about histories of genocide, slavery, war, and colonial violence is a profoundly political issue. Should commemorative projects gloss over or acknowledge past genocide, colonial violence, racial terror, and slavery? How should various victim groups be portrayed in the physical environment? Should commemoration aim to be politically instructive, and if so, what should it instruct? And how visceral should the depictions of violence be – should they show the public sanitiZed or jarring images? These questions are hotly debated in a number of contexts where states and publics continue to grapple with painful histories and enduring oppression. Through close readings of monuments and memorials as elements of the aesthetic environment, this dissertation examines the ways that the political and the aesthetic intersect in physical space. This dissertation’s central claim is that the work of markers of historical mass violence ought to be to work against future mass violence. Through three case studies of the political aesthetic of commemoration in a variety of national, cultural, and political contexts, the dissertation explores more promising ways of relating to the past that might cultivate an aversion iii to future mass violence. The first case study explores the theme of bodily vulnerability in genocide memorials in Rwanda. The second case study examines fugitivity in Black political thought and the commemoration of fugitives from slavery in the United States. The third case study analyzes solidarity through a study of Australian memorials depicting colonial violence against Indigenous Australians, followed by a conclusion. Together, these case studies contribute to the literatures on memory and political theory by theoriZing a political aesthetic of memorials around themes of bodily vulnerability, fugitivity, and solidarity. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not be complete without the support of my mentors, family, and friends who supported me throughout graduate school. I am honored to be able to acknowledge the support of Susan Bickford, an excellent chair and advisor, as well as the other fantastic members of my dissertation committee: Jeff Spinner-Halev, Michael Lienesch, Alex Kirshner, and Simon Stow. Their conversations and written comments challenged and developed my thinking on every aspect of the project, and their emotional and intellectual support as well as time invested in my work are sincerely appreciated. The dissertation was financially supported by UNC’s Ethnic Studies Collective, Whit Ayres Fund, Graduate School, Thomas Uhlman Fund, and Department of Political Science. I am grateful for thoughtful comments from discussants and participants in the meetings of the American Political Science Association, Association for Political Theory, Virginia Tech ASPECT Conference, Duke Graduate Conference in Political Theory, Memory Studies Association, and Western Political Science Association. I thank the organiZers and scholars I learned from in Australia: Graeme and Sallie Cordiner, Jessica Neath, Quentin Stevens, and Jock Gilbert. Wednesday morning writing group friends (Leah Christiani, Andreas Jozwiak, Dave Attewell, and Erroll Kuhn) helped me actually finish the dissertation and made it – and me – much better. I am deeply thankful to my parents, who helped me battle self- doubt; Anna, who kept me going; and Ryan, the greatest gift I got out of the process. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .................................................................................................. VIII INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 THE POLITICAL AESTHETIC ...................................................................................................... 3 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ................................................................................................. 7 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION ............................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER ONE: A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF COMMEMORATION ...................... 14 REMEMBERING VS. FORGETTING ............................................................................................ 15 The Imperative to Remember and the Dangers of Forgetting .............................................. 15 The Imperative to Forget and the Dangers of Remembering ............................................... 18 Forgetting vs. Remembering in Confederate Monuments Discourse ................................... 22 NEW DIRECTIONS: BEYOND REMEMBERING VS. FORGETTING .............................................. 23 The Politics of Memory ......................................................................................................... 24 The Promise of Return: Agonism, Ambivalence, and Counter-Memorialization ................. 26 THE WORK OF MOURNING ...................................................................................................... 30 The Summum Malum of Future Mass Violence .................................................................... 32 The Political Aesthetic and the Work of Mourning .............................................................. 34 CHAPTER TWO: A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF BODILY VULNERABILITY IN RWANDA'S GENOCIDE MEMORIALS .......................................................................... 36 RWANDA’S COMMEMORATIVE ENVIRONMENT ...................................................................... 38 NEGATIVE ACCOUNTS OF BODILY PAIN AND VULNERABILITY .............................................. 46 A POSITIVE ACCOUNT OF BODILY VULNERABILITY ............................................................... 51 vi CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................ 62 CHAPTER THREE: A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF FUGITIVITY IN THE MEMORIAL LANDSCAPE OF U.S. SLAVERY ................................................................... 65 THE CONVENTIONAL NARRATIVE OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD AND FREDERICK DOUGLASS’ FUGITIVITY ........................................................................................................... 68 “LURKING” ON THE PERIPHERY: HARRIET JACOBS AND LIMINAL FUGITIVITY ................... 73 TRUANCY: SHORT-TERM FUGITIVITY AS RESISTANCE .......................................................... 81 HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: BLENDING IN AMONG FREE BLACK COMMUNITIES ...................... 85 MARRONAGE: CREATING FUGITIVE COMMUNITIES .............................................................. 89 A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF FUGITIVITY ............................................................................... 94 An Expanded Political Aesthetic of Fugitivity ...................................................................... 95 Fugitivity in Contemporary Politics ................................................................................... 102 Working against Future Mass Violence .............................................................................. 107 CHAPTER FOUR: A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF SOLIDARITY IN MEMORIALS TO INDIGENOUS VICTIMS OF AUSTRALIAN COLONIAL VIOLENCE ............................................................................................................................... 111 SOLIDARITY ............................................................................................................................ 113 Solidarity as Common Characteristics ............................................................................... 115 Solidarity as Shared Activity ............................................................................................... 117 AUSTRALIAN COLONIAL VIOLENCE AND ITS MEMORIALS ................................................... 123 A POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF SOLIDARITY IN AUSTRALIAN MEMORIALS ............................ 126 THE MYALL CREEK MASSACRE MEMORIAL ........................................................................ 128 “STANDING BY TUNNERMINNERWAIT AND MAULBOYHEENNER” ........................................ 132 A RADICAL POLITICAL AESTHETIC OF SOLIDARITY ............................................................ 138 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................... 143 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................... 148 WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................................