Museums and the Formation of National and Cultural Identities

Coombes, Annie E.

doi:10.4324/9780429399671-18

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…National museums, such as the Tate Britain, are widely recognized as key protagonists in a national politics of memory. Through the presentation of material culture, they convey particular perspectives on the nation's past and on its identity (see Coombes, 2004;Duncan, 1995;Levitt, 2015;Prosler, 1995). These perspectives are lent legitimacy through their often close relationship with the state.…”

Section: Approach and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The anatomy of memory politics: a formalist analysis of Tate Britain’s ‘Artist and Empire’ and the struggle over Britain’s imperial past

Woods

2019

Am J Cult Sociol

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In this paper, I propose a new approach for understanding the meaning of memory politics, which draws upon the archetypal literary criticism of Northrop Frye. I suggest that the four archetypes elaborated by Frye-comedy, romance, tragedy, and satire-can be used as a heuristic device for interpreting the contested historical narratives that are associated with the politics of memory. I illustrate this approach through a case-study of 'Artists and Empire: Facing Britain's Imperial Past', an exhibition held at Tate Britain in 2016, amidst increasing contestation over the meaning of the British Empire. In sum, I find that the exhibit narrated Britain's imperial past as a comedy, in which a key theme was the progressive cultural mixing of the British and the people they colonized. To conclude, I discuss the implications of such a narrative for constructing an inclusive, postcolonial British identity. As an alternative, I draw on Aristotle to suggest that a tragic narrative would have been more propitious.

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Section: Approach and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The anatomy of memory politics: a formalist analysis of Tate Britain’s ‘Artist and Empire’ and the struggle over Britain’s imperial past

Woods

2019

Am J Cult Sociol

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“…In many of the major museums of Northern and Western Europe for example, this preoccupation manifests itself with a great emphasis (in national-level collections) on the history and archaeology of Greece and Rome (Elsner et al, 1996). Historically, the stories of such museums are closely bound up with colonial and postcolonial narratives, and the commodification of "otherness" for domestic consumption (Coombes, 1986). Edward Said's famous analysis in Orientalism characterized this in terms of critical separation between the student and the studied, where "the Orient" and the material cultures of non-Western countries was characterized as an abstraction, which are intellectually subject to the Western corporate institution for dealing with the Orient" (Said, 1978: 3).…”

Section: Museums and Physical (Spatial) Narrativementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet these remain far less problematized or researched than (say) the influence of physical (museum or gallery) environments on the conditioning of object narratives (e.g. Coombes, 1986;Moser, 2010), or the impact of social media on visitor and curator practices. In the latter case, while great potential was foreseen in the mid-2000s of the "democratizing" effect of social media in museums, at a time when social media and the interactive internet were becoming widespread in the developed world (see, e.g.…”

Section: Object Itineraries and Digital Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Museums and Digital Culture

2019

Springer Series on Cultural Computing

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Museums represent complex layers of place. From carefully managed curatorial spaces, to exhibition environments, to the layout of display cases, to the representation of distant parts embodied in the collections of the great encyclopedic collections, the negotiation, representation and presentation of place has always been central to the mission of any museum. This chapter will examine the history of how museums (especially museum catalogues) present place, from early origins to the Internet. A set of case studies will be examined as a means of exploring how, where and in what form art objects and artefacts first began to be transported from non-Western to Western nations for display in the museums of Western capitals, thus representing the origins of what Cuno has called our "basic and inevitable cultural interrelatedness"; and what others have called "object itineraries" or "object biographies". A comparison will be made of the same museums' online representation of the same places today. It will thus be possible to present a framework for considering object itineraries -historic and modern -as a subject of both history and historiography.

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“…L A PARTICIPATION DES AUTOCHTONES dans l'élaboration des expositions muséales qui les représentent est un enjeu qui a fait l'objet de nombreux travaux et publications dans les trente dernières années (voir, entre autres, Ames 1994 ;Coombes 1991 ;Gibson et Mallon 2010 ;Kahn 2000 ;Nemiroff Winnel 1996). Ces auteurs ont documenté les conflits, les tensions, les compromis, mais aussi les réussites de différents projets d'exposition ou de création de musées, contribuant ainsi à l'analyse de la complexité de l'histoire des relations entre les peuples autochtones et les musées (Dubuc et Turgeon 2002 : 11).…”

Section: Résumé De L'articleunclassified

Voix autochtones au Musée de la civilisation de Québec

Desmarais¹,

Jérôme

2018

raq

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Cet article rend compte de points de vue autochtones sur le processus de réalisation de l’exposition permanente du Musée de la civilisation de Québec C’est notre histoire : Premières Nations et Inuit du xxie siècle (2013, en cours) et son résultat. Ce processus a été mené grâce un vaste terrain de concertation dans les communautés autochtones au Québec, après la mise sur pied de comités consultatifs et d’un partenariat privilégié avec l’organisme autochtone La Boîte Rouge VIF. Le résultat de ce processus complexe a été salué et reconnu dans le monde muséal. Mais cette feuille de route a-t-elle réellement participé à la réconciliation entre peuples autochtones et Musées ? L’article propose de valoriser le regard de certains autochtones engagés dans le processus de réalisation de l’exposition et de documenter les rapports qui se sont construits et négociés au sein de l’équipe de réalisation. L’étude permet de constater non seulement que les objectifs de concertation espérés et annoncés au départ ne se sont pas complètement réalisés, mais également qu’a perduré un déséquilibre du pouvoir malgré le processus de décolonisation au sein duquel est engagé le MCQ depuis de nombreuses années.

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Museums and the Formation of National and Cultural Identities

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The anatomy of memory politics: a formalist analysis of Tate Britain’s ‘Artist and Empire’ and the struggle over Britain’s imperial past

The anatomy of memory politics: a formalist analysis of Tate Britain’s ‘Artist and Empire’ and the struggle over Britain’s imperial past

Museums and Digital Culture

Voix autochtones au Musée de la civilisation de Québec

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