Study Of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial In Washington, Usa

Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. in the United States is a classic case of public art in the twentieth century. With controversial social background, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial had triggered new controversies. However, it has finally reconciled various social contradictions, having fulfilled the function of commemoration and become part of American social mainstream.This graduate dissertation first of all focuses on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial itself, gathering and sorting out all the information that concerned and trying to interpret the memorial in different perspectives. Then having put the memorial in a broader social context, this dissertation analyzes the interactive social factors from different angles and how the memorial has developed gradually in a continuous process. This process which lasts till today involves many stages, from the American society holding an uncertain attitude towards the Vietnam War to controversies over Maya Lin's design, from the establishment of the memorial to other additions, from the continuous offerings left by the visitors, cultural replication to the profound influence over other monuments. Multiple commemorative ways of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial finally juxtapose, having met the needs of different people in American society in multiple symbolic significances.The dynamic process in which the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has taken on multiple significances is also the process of the reconstruction of the history of the Vietnam War. Both monument and memorial will fulfill the social function of commemoration. What and how to be commemorated is the problem that every monument has to solve. What a monument expresses and propagates is the attitude towards a certain period of history. This attitude will determine the unique contents of contemporary historical text, conforming to contemporary social mainstream of ideology. The fundamental purpose of commemoration is to serve the present needs and to solve the contemporary social problem. Historical commemoration is a never-ending process and history itself has been changing too. As if coordinates, Monuments and memorials mirror the contemporary context, reflecting the broader history both before and after.