Calling Memory Into Place

DORA APEL is the W. Hawkins Ferry Endowed Chair Professor Emerita in Modern and Contemporary Art History at Wayne State University in Detroit. Her many books include Imagery of Lynching: Black Men, White Women, and the Mob and Memory Effects: The Holocaust and the Art of Secondary Witnessing (both Rutgers University Press).

"Apel brings it all to bear in this extraordinary book."— PopMatters"In this deeply personal and thoughtful book, Dora Apel explores what it means to recall terrible events and what is at stake in forgetting them. She shows us that artworks, memorials and monuments, however fixed they may be in their form, are also malleable in their meaning when they are mobilized by individuals, communities and governments. Whether she is writing about recent attempts to reckon with America's legacy of racial violence, the dilemmas that arise from efforts to memorialize the Holocaust, or her own struggle with cancer, Apel's approach is always lucid, empathic and moving."— Coco Fusco, Cooper Union School of Arts"An inherently fascinating, thoughtful and thought-provoking series of insightfully informative essays on the role of memory in processing personal, social, cultural and political histories, Calling Memory into Place is an impressive and original work that is nicely illustrated throughout in full color." — Midwest Book Review"The Best Books of 2020: Non-Fiction"— PopMatters, The Best Books of 2020: NonfictionThe Library Café interview with Dora Apel— The Library Cafe"Calling Memory into Place is written out of a deep conviction in the emancipatory and reparative potentials of memory. Building on the trauma and the resilience inherited from her mother's survival of the Holocaust, Dora Apel powerfully explores how memorials, visual artworks, and personal narratives of illness and recovery can mobilize us in the struggle for social justice."— Marianne Hirsch, co-author of School Photos in Liquid Time: Reframing Difference

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart 1: Passages and Streets1.         A Memorial for Walter Benjamin2.         "Hands Up, Don't Shoot"Part II: Memorials and Museums3.          Why We Need a National Lynching Memorial4.         "Let the World See What I Have Seen"Part III: Hometowns and Homelands5.         Seeing What Can No Longer Be Seen6.         Borders and WallsPart IV: Hospitals and Cemeteries7.         Sprung from the Head8.         Parallel UniversesPart V:  Body and Mind9.        Reclaiming the Self10.       The Care of OthersConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex