ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents several analyses of monuments and memorials—including gravestones and churches—that address the question of just how it is that mute artifacts can convey meaning. It deals with a consideration of the materials from which they are constructed and their significance. The book offers analyses of what makes for a ruin and the value of ruin preservation. Monuments and memorials may be individual or familial, as with a grave marker, or national, as with a triumphal monument. Memorials can be formally beautiful or grisly and disturbing. Under either description, they recall both the victims and the historical events that claimed them; they may even evoke a sense of the sublime. Monuments and memorials are designed to last, to remain as prompters of remembrance far beyond the events recalled in living memory.
