Identifier

121

Date

2018

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Fine Arts

Major

Communication

Concentration

Communication Studies

Committee Member

Antonio de Velasco

Abstract

This project analyzes the events of Memphis in 1968 and how they worked to self-designate Memphis as a public memory place, and how this designation, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, tied King to the place of Memphis so that talking about King is talking about Memphis. It examines how the events in 1968 saturated the city in a manner that resists official attempts, such as the MLK50 campaign, to locate and control public memory. Finally, this project proposes the concept of rhetorical ghosts, as exemplified by contemporary invocations of King's name, as a tool for understanding how discourse embodies public memory of the past to judge the present. This concept demonstrates how 1968 continues to shape the rhetorical landscape and memory of Memphis and how factions in Memphis utilize the memory of King to cast judgments on contemporary policy and progress.

Comments

Undergraduate Honor's Thesis

Library Comment

Honors thesis originally submitted to the Local University of Memphis Honor’s Thesis Repository.

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