Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: ABSTRACT
This essay examines the Little Ones’ Memory Garden in Birmingham, Alabama as a feature of display in the American landscape. I argue that the garden’s symbolic representation allows the spatial site to function similar to that of a physical gravesite. Herein, I discuss the importance of rhetorical analysis of memorials and monuments to understanding how cultural ideals are communicated through the concept of display. The essay advances by, first, reviewing Lawrence J. Prelli’s concept of display rhetoric and reviewing how memorials have been studied rhetorically in the past. Next, Richard Morris’ classification of cemeteries is explained. Finally, features of the Memory Garden are explained and implications from the analysis are presented.