Architectures of Trauma
People
Course director
Description
The 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st bear witness to the traumatic experiences resulting from the world wars, the horrors of the Shoah, the attack on the Twin Towers, the Covid-19 pandemic and other tragedies. Such catastrophes seem to be burned into the collective memory, inevitably marking moments of crisis, rupture and discontinuity both on the historical level and that of their artistic-literary representation. The course seeks to investigate the crucial points that marked the transition from the war memorials of World War I to the memorials and museums of the Shoah and conducts an analysis of the most recent commemorative forms. In addition, it critically presents the various architectural typologies by which the great tragedies of the last century and the theoretical debate on their artistic representability have been depicted.
Objectives
To illustrate the phenomenon of memorial architecture and more generally of the heritage culture of memory.
Teaching mode
In presence
Learning methods
90% Lecture
10% On-site visits without overnights
Examination information
Paper
Bibliography
- Bernardi, Anna. Architettura e politiche della memoria: Louis K. Kahn e Peter Zumthor: due progetti non realizzati. Mendrisio: Mendrisio Academy Press, 2023.
- Edkins, Jenny. Trauma and the Memory of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
- Tanovic, Sabina. Designing Memory. The Architecture of Commemoration in Europe, 1914 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- Violi, Patrizia. Paesaggi della memoria. Il trauma, lo spazio, la storia. Milano: Bompiani, 2014.
- Young, James E. The stages of memory: reflections on memorial art, loss, and the spaces between. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2016.
- Young, James E. The texture of memory: Holocaust memorials and meaning. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993.
- Zevi, Adachiara. Monumenti per difetto: dalle Fosse Ardeatine alle pietre d'inciampo. Roma: Donzelli, 2014.
- Assmann, Aleida. Ricordare: forme e mutamenti della memoria culturale. Bologna: Il mulino, 2014.
- Assmann, Aleida. Shadows of trauma: memory and the politics of postwar identity. New York: Fordham University Press, 2016.
- Borg, Alan. War memorials: from Antiquity to the present. London: Leo Cooper, 1991.
- Mosse, George L. Le guerre mondiali: dalla tragedia al mito dei caduti. 2a ed.. Roma: Laterza, 2005.
- Sontag, Susan. Davanti al dolore degli altri. Milano: Oscar Mondadori, 2010.
- Sontag, Susan. Regarding the pain of others. 2nd. pr.-5th. print. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
- Williams, Paul. Memorial museums: the global rush to commemorate atrocities. Oxford: Berg, 2007.
Education
- Master in Storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura (120 ECTS), Lecture ex cathedra, Elective course, Elective, 1st year (3.0 ECTS)
- Master in Storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura (120 ECTS), Lecture ex cathedra, Elective course, Elective, 2nd year (3.0 ECTS)
- Master of Science in Architecture, Lecture ex cathedra, Elective, 1st year
- Master of Science in Architecture, Lecture ex cathedra, Elective, 2nd year
Study trips
- Milan, 04.10.24 - 04.10.24 (Optional)
