ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on state-sponsored memory sites, those that have been identified, refurbished, designed, and narrated by official bodies, and that usually have pedagogical aims for visitor audiences that seek to frame the state and its past in particular terms. Attending to the sensory allows us to move beyond the poles of memory and history that have dominated memory studies, and engage with official lieux de memoire in fruitful, more-than-representational ways. Participants’ sensory experience of dark, cool pre-dawn conditions; the gradually increasing illumination of sunrise that changes how they perceive their surroundings; and the repetition of well-known ritual phrases alongside thousands of other visitors create powerful emotional and atmospheric experiences that are anchored in the senses. Instead, using feelings – both sensory and emotional – as a way to understand our surroundings offers productive possibilities to make sense of state-sponsored sites that can move us beyond what we might already know about them.
