Toronto’s Geographies of Public Memory

Background and context of the assignment
This assignment invites you to explore the collective memories and meanings that are communicated through public sculptures installed in a range of locations across Toronto at various points in time. In a very basic sense, the goal is for you to gain an appreciation for why such creations have become part of the urban landscape and are worthy of study as well as for what they reveal about wider processes in the social and political spheres. The assignment invites you to explore the connections between where acommemorative sculpture is placed, what it looks like, the primary audience to whom it is directed, what sort of meanings/interpretations/emotions the sculpture may elicit and for whom, and how the content of these may change with the passage of time. In the process of doing the assignment, you will see how it is possible to conceive of “geographies of public memory” (aka “landscapes of memory”) being created in ongoing fashion across towns, suburbs, and cities in nation states around the globe. At various points in your life in (and possibly beyond) Canada, you will have visited such memorial sites in a purposeful manner and experienced a range of emotions as a result of such encounters. At other times, you may have walked by them and barely given them a glance or a thought about what it is they are commemorating. You may, however, be surprised by the extent of their presence. Toronto has at least five hundred such sculptures; Montreal’s figure is somewhere in the 400s, and Vancouver’s in the 300s. A range of individuals and groups have come together in these cities at various points in their history to help create and situate these memorials and monuments in public spaces. Each memorial has had a motivating purpose behind its creation – one could say that each narrates a story or narrative, but those who plan, design and create the sculptures cannot necessarily hope to control how such narratives and stories are interpreted by those visiting and viewing them; nor can they hope that such meanings remain stable through time as political and social circumstances in these cities and the societies of which they are a part undergo further change.
The assignment presents you with (1) a short reading by Derek Alderman and Joshua Inwood (from the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Cultural Geography) that discusses how geographers have approached
 the study of public monuments and memorials that will help your analysis, (2) a list of eighteen memorials/monuments that exist in different locations across the Toronto area, and (3) a list of further reading comprised of academic articles and newspaper reports. You are to choose and analyze three sites from the list of eighteen and complete a short essay. Your description and analysis of the sites should address the following issues:
1. The significance of the site’s/memorial’s location. Why do you think it is located where it is?
2. What is the message that comes across from the memorial’s design/appearance/form and inscription (if any)?
3. What is known about those who planned, designed, and paid for this specific memorial? The inscription may reveal this. Would you say that the process was a “top-down” (driven by the state or “elite” groups) one or a “bottom-up” (community-centred) one? Why?
4. What larger theme or themes does this memorial and its particular message speak to? Examples here could be (histories of) colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, religion, race, gender, ethnicity, class/labour, and so on.
5. Does the memorial have a particular audience or “target group” to whom it is intended to have significance? What sorts of emotions might it elicit amongst this group and why? Would the site elicit demonstrably different emotions from another group or groups – if so, why?
GUIDELINES:
Your essay should be thoughtful, incisive, and creatively synthesize your own research and interpretations. It should begin with a thesis statement indicating your argument about the association between geography/place and commemoration.
Your essay should be in your own words as much as possible. If quoting another author, do not exceed one whole sentence; otherwise, quoting short phrases and concepts of 3-4 words are fine and remember to reference them. If quoting a memorial’s inscription, again do not exceed one whole sentence, but quoting segments/phrases from it are fine. The list of further reading is there to stimulate your thoughts and ideas. If you do want to add in some discussion about a memorial elsewhere discussed by another author, this is fine but be sparing in how you do this. The majority of the essay should be about the two Toronto sites you have selected. You should conclude the essay with a short paragraph that reflects on how the past matters in terms of understanding the present and what role public memorials play in this.