Public memorializing in postmodernity: The Vietnam veterans memorial as prototype

This essay argues for a reading of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a postmodern discourse. Beginning with a contrast of modernist and postmodern rhetorics of architecture, the authors suggest that the Memorial reflects the typical gestures of postmodern architecture. Moreover, they suggest that a consideration of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a postmodern discourse accounts for differences among other critical accounts, highlights the Memorial's political stance, and bears implications for a postmodern monumentality. The essay concludes with a discussion of the critical assumptions that are placed at issue in a postmodern reading.