Epideictic Space: Community, Memory, and Future Invention at Civil War Tourist Sites

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorFields, Cynthia Fernen
dc.contributor.committeechairPowell, Katrina M.en
dc.contributor.committeememberBelanger, Kelly R.en
dc.contributor.committeememberHeilker, Paul V.en
dc.contributor.committeememberHausman, Bernice L.en
dc.contributor.departmentEnglishen
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-28T06:00:20Zen
dc.date.available2018-04-28T06:00:20Zen
dc.date.issued2015-04-26en
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation examines American Civil War tourist spaces in order to describe how epideictic rhetoric has distinct spatial functions that affect the identity of tourists. Through an analysis of three Civil War spaces in Virginia--Lexington, Appomattox Court House, and the Museum of the Confederacy--I argue epideictic space is a locus of invention that has the performative power to create community, public memory, and a vision of the future through the movement of bodies in space. Through a consubstantial ethos established between space and audience, epideictic creates kairotic space and time by collapsing past, present, and future in order to create a narrative history with which the community can identify. This study traces rhetoric related to the Confederate flag, slavery, nationalism, and reconciliation through an analysis of the Civil War spaces in which these discourses are embodied. I suggest that creating a productive rhetoric of blame starts through connecting blame, such as remembering slavery, to the materiality of space and through creating narratives of responsibility that connect memory to a vision of the future.en
dc.description.degreePh. D.en
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:4543en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/82930en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectepideictic rhetoricen
dc.subjectspaceen
dc.subjectpublic memoryen
dc.subjecttourismen
dc.subjectnarrativeen
dc.subjectAmerican Civil Waren
dc.titleEpideictic Space: Community, Memory, and Future Invention at Civil War Tourist Sitesen
dc.typeDissertationen
thesis.degree.disciplineRhetoric and Writingen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen
thesis.degree.namePh. D.en

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Fields_CF_D_2015.pdf
Size:
2.28 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Doctoral Dissertations