Bodies in Stone and Steel: An Aesthetics and Ethics of Commemorative Art

FAIN: FT-278888-21

Sandra Lynne Shapshay
CUNY Research Foundation, Hunter College (New York, NY 10065-5024)

Writing toward the completion of a book on the function of monuments for the commemoration of shared civic ideals.

Bodies in Stone and Steel: An Aesthetics and Ethics of Commemorative Art, aims to be the first monograph devoted to a philosophical investigation of commemorative art. It takes up questions such as: What are the characteristic aesthetic effects of deliberate monuments and memorials, that is, how do they characteristically make spectators think and feel? How have the aesthetic codes of monuments and memorials developed historically and how might they fruitfully evolve in response to current controversies? Should societies continue to utilize such works to impart political and ethical lessons in public space, or should monuments become a mere relic in modern, pluralistic societies? A major aim of my project is to offer a moderate defense of monuments in the U.S. against iconoclastic arguments.