ABSTRACT
Chapter Four considers the conditions under which sites of memory construct melancholic narratives. It begins by examining the key individuals who framed and advocated for the sites. It finds that while the demographic characteristics of a stakeholder does not significantly impact the narrative produced, the intention of the stakeholder does. It describes the intentions of stakeholders to produce sites of melancholia as well as militaristic sites of mourning and mobilisation. Yet this factor alone does not explain why some individuals faced obstacles, or failed to construct the sites they envisioned. Thus, the chapter turns to the sites’ relationship to the state as a source of legitimacy and financial support. The development of a relationship with the state explains the eventual mobilisation of some sites, while the absence of such a relationship explains the decision by others to change their physical form. This does not, however, explain the persistent latent melancholia of one outlying site: the colonial garden in Nogent-sur-Marne. The distinctive history and physical form of this site—imperial ruins that were continually repurposed to celebrate the French Empire—made its assimilation into militaristic or multicultural narratives impossible.
