About the Book
Breaking the Bronze Ceiling uncovers a glaring omission in our global memorial landscape—the conspicuous absence of women. Exploring this neglected narrative, the book emerges as the foremost guide to women's memorialization across diverse cultures and ages. As global memorials come under intense examination, with metropolises vying for a more inclusive recognition of female contributions, this book stands at the forefront of contemporary discussion.
The book's thought-provoking essays artfully traverse the complex terrains of gender portrayal, urban tales, ancestral practices, and grassroots activism—all anchored in the bedrock of cultural remembrance. Rich in the range of cases discussed, the book sifts through multifaceted representations of women, from Marians to Liberties, to handmaidens, to particular historical women.
Breaking the Bronze Ceiling offers a panoramic view of worldwide memorials, critically analyzing grandiose tributes while also honoring subtle gestures—be it evocative plaques, inspiring namesakes, or dynamic demonstrations. The book will be of interest to historians of art and architecture, as well as to activists, governmental bodies, urban planners, and NGOs committed to regional history and memory.
More than a mere compilation, Breaking the Bronze Ceiling epitomizes a movement. The book comprehensively assesses the portrayal of women in public art and offers a fervent plea to address the severe underrepresentation of women in memorials.
Contributors: Carolina Aguilera, Manuela Badilla, Daniel E. Coslett, Erika Doss, Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy, Daniel Herwitz, Katherine Hite, Lauren Kroiz, Ana María León, Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral, Pía Montealegre, Sierra Rooney, Daniela Sandler, Kirk Savage, Susan Slyomovics, Marita Sturken, Amanda Su, Dell Upton, Nathaniel Robert Walker, and Mechtild Widrich
Table of Contents:
List of Figures ix
Introduction
Valentina Rozas-Krause and Andrew M. Shanken 1
Part I: Patronized Women
1. Innocence and Guilt: Memorializing a Gender Tragedy in Nineteenth-Century Santiago de Chile
Pía Montealegre 19
2. George Eliot at Nuneaton and Trans Monumentality
Amanda Su 41
Toppling Pocahontas
Kirk Savage 69
Monument to the Chilean Women Victims of Political Repression
Carolina Aguilera and Manuela Badilla Rajevic 73
Part II: Public Women
3. White Marble and White Women: Adelaide Johnson's Portrait Monument
Lauren Kroiz 79
4. "We Shall Beg No More": Helen Keller, Politics, and Commemorations in the National Statuary Hall
Sierra Rooney 101
Monument to Sojourner Truth
Katherine Hite 118
Fearless Girl, New York City
Marita Sturken 122
Monument to the Empress Maria-Theresia, Vienna, Austria
Mechtild Widrich 126
Part III: Women Warriors
5. The Myth of the Passive Woman in Confederate Monuments
Nathaniel Robert Walker 133
6. Firearms, Flowers, and Barricades: Women's Reinscriptions in the Mexican Landscape of Monuments
Tania Gutiérrez-Monroy 158
Memorial to the South Carolina Women of the Confederacy
(Frederick Wellington Ruckstuhl, 1909–1912), Columbia, South Carolina
Dell Upton 180
Memorial to the Black Mothers of the Periphery Fighting against State Terrorism, Rio de Janeiro
Daniela Sandler 189
Mujeres Creando, Plaza Chola Globalizada, La Paz, Bolivia
Ana María León 193
Part IV: Allegorical Women
7. The Colonial Marianne: Representing Liberté and France in Occupied North Africa
Daniel E. Coslett 201
8. Female Winged Victory Statues in French Algeria
Susan Slyomovics 230
The Argentine Marianne
Fernando Luis Martínez Nespral 253
I Am Queen Mary, Copenhagen
Erika Doss 257
Patience on a Monument: A History Painting
Daniel Herwitz 261
List of Contributors 265
Index 271
About the Author :
Valentina Rozas-Krause (Edited By)
Valentina Rozas-Krause is Assistant Professor in Design and Architecture at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile and Harvard University Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow (2023–24). She is the author of Ni Tan Elefante, Ni Tan Blanco (Ril, 2014) and the coedited volume Disputar la Ciudad (Bifurcaciones, 2018). These books join peer-reviewed articles in History & Memory, e-flux, Latin American Perspectives, Memory Studies, Anos 90, ARQ, Revista 180, Cuadernos de Antropología Social, and Bifurcaciones alongside chapters in Golpes a la Memoria (Tege, 2019) and Neocolonialism and Built Heritage (Routledge, 2020).
Andrew M. Shanken (Edited By)
Andrew Shanken is Professor of Architectural History and the Director of American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of 194X: Architecture, Planning, and Consumer Culture on the American Homefront (University of Minnesota Press, 2009) and The Everyday Life of Memorials (Zone Books, 2022).
Review :
. . .[A] clear, significant contribution to the fields of gender studies, women's history, and ever expanding conversations on monuments, collective memory, and the built environment.-- "H-Net Reviews"
Reassesses the role of women in public art, with a particular focus on the lack of female memorials around the world.-- "Publishers Weekly"
This powerful book asks why women have been so underrepresented in public memorials and how distortion and debasement have played a part in how women have been remembered. Breaking the Bronze Ceiling makes a strong case for how cultural memory--and its mismanagement--have been controlling factors in the treatment of women in public art. The range of approaches makes the chapters lively and thought-provoking.---Susan G. Solomon
