Personal Death and Public Grief: Reflections on Trauma, Consolation, and Communal Commemoration in America

Public commemoration of unexpected death in America, while often focused on charismatic celebrities in the short term, typically finds permanent form only in the remembrance of the sudden mass deaths of average citizens. This paper examines the dynamics of public memorializing of large-scale death from its origins during the US Civil War to the present. The crucial turning point in public commemoration is located in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM), which touched off a "memorial mania" across the United States. The key innovations of the VVM were its origins within a specific group asserting its identity, and its implied emphasis on victimization through trauma, which made the Wall in Washington, DC America's first true therapeutic memorial. The paper concludes with lessons from the American experience for other nations enduring similar traumas by examining the sources of modern memorializing - a contemplative attitude towards death rooted in the Romantic sensibility, victimization, and democratization. Together they can, if thoughtfully applied in the creation of commemorative memorials, foster individual and even national catharsis when people are confronted with a major tragedy.