Crossing the verge: Roadside memorial - Perth Western Australia

Authors

Dennis Wood, Edith Cowan University

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publisher

Springer

Place of Publication

Belgium

Editor(s)

G. Backhaus & J. Murungi

Faculty

Faculty of Education and Arts

School

Executive Deans Office

RAS ID

9506

Comments

Wood, D. (2009). Crossing the Verge: Roadside Memorial - Perth Western Australia. In G. Backhaus & J. Murungi. (Eds.). Symbolic Landscapes (pp 161-171). Belgium: Springer.

ISBN 978-1-4020-8702-8

Abstract

The notion of the ritual space of the roadside memorial, articulated by the author of this chapter as lived geography, exemplifies our sense of the geography of enactment. Lived geography, as the author argues, involves both perceptual and conceptual spaces, and we maintain that these intertwine in the embodied act of imagineering, in the construction of an actual symbolic landscape and the ritualized experiences of it. The author uses the term, “performance,” emphasizing the role of embodiment in enacting the geographicity of meaning. This spatial production reintroduces a sense of community precisely because ritual involves enactment, embodied gestures that generate the symbolization—its physiognomy—in a geography where intimate meanings can be shared in comm(on) unity.