MONUMENT IN A LANDSCAPE - THE QUESTION OF MEANING

Public monuments are of special interest as focal points of meaning in the landscape. Cultural geographers, in attempting to come to terms w ith questions of meaning, have begun in recent years to think in categ ories more typical of literary studies than of social science. In this paper the concept of 'allegory' is used as a device for illuminating the possible meanings of a monument. The affinities between monumental and allegorical works are discussed. A thirty-year-old memorial colum n in Armidale, NSW, is taken as a case study. The meaning of this stru cture to present-day observers is particularly debatable. Several poss ible readings are proposed, formulated in allegorical terms. It is sug gested that such an approach can produce insights that might not other wise come to the surface.