- Title
- Monumental Copper and Coal: The Case for Including Extractivism in the Rethinking of Colonial Commemorations
- Creator
- Orr, Nikolas; Crushing, Nancy
- Relation
- https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28609-4_13
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2023
- Description
- This chapter expands the scope of the critique of colonial commemorations to encompass the entanglement of statues in extractivist economies. Starting with the distinction in semiotic theory, we draw attention to statues as signs composed of signifier and signified. First, through a case study on copper, we consider the substances from which the physical monument, or signifier, is made. Then, in keeping with more established approaches, we address the signified: the prototype to which the monument refers via its iconographic programme, in this case the people and events associated with coal mining. These two case studies traverse monumental landscapes of the Spanish and British empires, and of South Africa, the United States and Australia. We conclude that debates about colonial commemorations, and arguments for the alteration or removal of statues, should take into account not only individuals responsible for direct harm to colonised peoples but also the industries and practices that have degraded their lands, waters and atmosphere and, now, the global climate.
- Subject
- colonial commemorations; extractivist economies; statues; semiotic theory
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1488159
- Identifier
- uon:52362
- Identifier
- ISBN:9783031286087
- Language
- eng
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