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- Title
The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum: Materiality, Trauma, and the Comfort of Catharsis.
- Authors
Whittenburg, Cari
- Abstract
This essay analyzes the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, focusing on embodied material simulation. I argue that the museum constructs an idealized Oklahoman citizen who works to curb anxieties surrounding domestic threats. The museum mobilizes ideal citizenship through its affective storytelling that functions to traumatize visitors to establish catharsis, which in turn invites visitors to place the blame of domestic terrorism solely on Timothy McVeigh. The rhetorical act of catharsis stunts the community's ability to challenge the rise of domestic terrorism that has been plaguing the United States long after the Oklahoma City bombing.
- Subjects
OKLAHOMA City (Okla.); MEMORIAL museums; NATIONAL museums; CATHARSIS; DOMESTIC terrorism; BOMBINGS; TERRORISM; COLLECTIVE memory; PLACE attachment (Psychology); SUICIDE bombings
- Publication
Western Journal of Communication, 2024, Vol 88, Issue 4, p782
- ISSN
1057-0314
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/10570314.2023.2183479