Commemorative objects

Abstract

This work, building on tenets of rhetorical genre studies, visual methodologies, and research on family archives, dives into the ways in which we make meaning with commemorative objects, the things we surround ourselves with in order to remember, whether family members, events, holidays, or otherwise, or help us mark meaning of our lived experiences. In particular, I look at my own family photographs that I have inherited over the years and trace their semiotic resources, how those resources prompt meaning making, and how this all leads to memory in the absence of the family I am looking at or hoping to find in the photographs. I argue that, when looking at commemorative objects, isolating one is not enough. We must treat our homes and lived spaces as archives, family archives, that aid in tracing rich histories of places, people, objects, and community. In tracing my own meaning making with my own family archives, I also argue for a look at the way uptakes, via Rhetorical Genre Studies, aid in understanding what I call the Janus effect of uptakes, when thought and memory become an explicit action, a forward-facing document or artifact that in turn can be taken up. Tracing the Janus effect aids in tracing how we make meaning with objects, and what those objects prompt us to do, whether take to research, memory, a phone call, or simply look at other family photographs.--Author's abstract