Revisiting the Past through Rhetorics of Memory and Amnesia

As the 21st century’s first decade draws to a close, we are reminded of events of the past, both distant and recent. Many resulted in violent conflict. This volume investigates how our memories are shaped by rhetorics crafted by people who want audiences to remember events in specific ways. From the pivotal battle between Americans and British and their Loyalist allies during the American Revolution to North America’s First Nations conflicts with the White mainstream to current memories and rhetoric about the recent war in Iraq, the authors of this book examine the ways in which rhetoric acts as a catalyst not only for cultural memory but also cultural amnesia. Both scholars and the general public will find the analyses in these chapters informative, insightful, and provocative. The authors delve into literary fiction, accounts of history, and even the vocabulary of the English language to examine what and how we remember and forget. Assembled from coast to coast across the US and Canada, the authors demonstrate how several rhetorics at once are often at play, from Wallace Stegner’s fiction to the architecture of urban Toronto, the US Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and even in rural cemeteries.