Connecting semiotics and cultural geography: A framework for the interpretations of monuments and memorials

Monuments and memorials are built forms with commemorative as well as political functions. They articulate selective historical narratives, focusing attention on events and individuals that are preferred by elites, while obliterating what is uncomfortable for them. Articulating historical narratives, monuments can set cultural and political agendas. Thus, elites design monuments striving to reinforce their political power and to legitimise dominant dynamics of inclusion and exclusion. Nevertheless, individuals differently interpret and use monuments in ways elites might have never envisioned. This paper claims that advancing the understanding of the connections between semiotics and cultural geography can be useful to explore how the built environment conveys meanings and how these meanings are variously interpreted at societal levels. To do so, this chapter develops a theoretical framework that conceives the interpretations of monuments and memorials as depending on three interplays: a) between the material, symbolic and political dimensions; b) between designers and users; and c) between monuments, the cultural context and the built environment. These ideas are explored through a comparative analysis of two monuments in Estonia: the Victory Column, a war memorial in Tallinn, and the so-called “Kissing Students”, a fountains culpture complex in Tartu.