Abstract

The aim of the research is to examine the multiple spatial frameworks and
materially manifested forms of memory by applying current memory studies
theory to four areas of memorial experience: personal memory, civic memory,
tourism and film. The thesis looks at memory practices based in the North
East, particularly those that take place in Newcastle upon Tyne, and explores
how the city is remembered in specific memory practices and institutions.
Combining work in memory studies and cultural geography, the thesis
highlights how memory is spatialized and is particularly concerned with the
city that shapes, and is shaped by, memory and memory practices. Changes
have taken place in the relationship between space, place and temporality
that have affected memory and practices of memorialization. At first glance,
the technologies we use and the spaces we inhabit can be interpreted as
leading to a pervasive amnesia. The thesis challenges this assumption. It
proposes that the concept of heterotopia provides a critical mode of reading
memory spaces offering a more positive account of the way memory is
currently being experienced. The thesis looks at how memory is realized in
the fabric of the city and how the historical city itself is represented through
the discursive practices of memorial public art, the museum and the cinema,
creating a collective cultural memory. The particular contribution that this
thesis makes is that it tests the explanatory power of the concept of
heterotopia in relation to memorial sites and it applies memory studies to the
city of Newcastle in a time of transition and renewal.