Jonker, Julian and Till, Karen E.
(2009)
Mapping and excavating spectral traces in
post-apartheid Cape Town.
Memory Studies, 2 (3).
pp. 303-335.
ISSN 1750-6980
Abstract
This article explores how spectral traces at places marked by acts of violence and
injustice allow residents to come into contact with past and future inhabitants of
the postcolonial city. We examine controversies surrounding Prestwich Place, Cape
Town, an informal burial ground for colonial underclasses that was unearthed when
construction began for an upscale ‘New York-style’ apartment and office complex.
The human remains that emerged embodied a past that exceeded national narrations
of public memory and presented this past as an object of concern for private capital
and activists. Rather than offer a biography of the site, we develop two concepts,
memorial cartographies and haunted archaeologies, that represent terrains not visible
on Cartesian mappings. We understand these narrative strategies as creative acts that
honour those who have gone before; both practices encourage us to listen as witnesses
to geographies of loss that continue to structure contemporary urbanisms.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
District Six; haunted archaeologies; memorial cartographies; post-apartheid Cape Town;
postcolonial cities; Prestwich Place; spectral traces; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography |
| Item ID: |
9021 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698008337561 |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Karen Till
|
| Date Deposited: |
22 Nov 2017 15:00 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Memory Studies |
| Publisher: |
Sage Publications |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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