The Audience after Virginia Tech

When I was quite young, I visited my grandfather’s grave in Hungary. I remember crying at the site and being consoled by my father and grandmother, who assured me that my grandfather was still there with us, in memory. Since that very early experience, I’ve been fascinated by the notion of memory, especially the way that memory is culturally (re)produced and culturally (re)inforced. In American culture, death and dying remain uncomfortable topics, especially for the way that they force individuals to confront the unfortunate reality of their own eventual passing. While one might wish otherwise, death is irrevocably final, in a way that makes tragedy ever more difficult to come to terms with. It is my hope that the stories the living tell about the dead, whether through traditional media obituaries or through online memorials, make easier the process of carrying forward one’s memory. This hope of mine may be rooted in a perhaps somewhat naive belief about the ability to continue learning and living through the lives and lessons of the deceased, but that is, nonetheless, an engine for my research in this area.1