Making the Lover’s Leap: Wenonah, Rhetorical Colonialism, and Dissociative Memory(-)Work

ABSTRACT

This essay analyzes a display of Wenonah and the “Lover’s Leap” in Winona, Minnesota, as an example of dissociative memory(-)work. Applying dissociation to the organization of commemorative space, I attend to how the display uses markers of commemorative labor as modifying terms that invite audiences to dissociate investiture from the figure represented in order to privilege the people, actions, and temporal frameworks of those who made and maintained the memorial. This analysis proposes different dissociative units relevant to memory(-)work, including persona memorialized/persona memorializing, act memorialized/act of memorializing, and time memorialized/time of memorializing. Attention to this example of memory(-)work helps critics account for a unique and resilient form of rhetorical colonialism.

KEYWORDS:

• Dissociation
• lover’s leap
• memory(-)work
• rhetorical colonialism
• Wenonah

Acknowledgments

The author thanks the two anonymous reviewers, Jacqueline Rhodes, and Anna M. M. Gaffey for their insights toward improving this essay. This work also benefited from assistance and resources provided by the Winona County Historical Society and Winona State University Krueger Library.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).