Abstract
In the context of museums, the presentation of death and disaster should be viewed within the framework of new museology which reflects the increased emphasis on inclusion and diversity. This chapter considers new museology and discusses the challenges of representing national conflict at museums; the role of emotive interpretation of dark historical periods; the role of emotive interpretation of dark historical periods; the role of museums in relation to memory-making, peace-making and politics; and, the pedagogical challenges of interpreting these dark events. This chapter discusses the issues associated with exhibiting death and disaster within the new museology context. In particular, reference is made to dedicated museums which focus on genocide, atrocities, the Holocaust, slavery and torture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Andermann, J., & Arnold-de Simine, S. (2012). Introduction memory, community and the new museum. Theory, Culture and Society, 29(1), 3–13.
Ashworth, G. J. (2002). Holocaust tourism: The experience of Krakow-Kazmierz. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 11(4), 363–367.
Autry, R. (2013). The political economy of memory: The challenges of representing national conflict at ‘identity-driven’ museums. Theory and society, 42(1), 57–80.
Baddeley, C. (2013). Managing the new museology: The changing role, purpose and management of Australian museums since 1980. Unpublished dissertation, University of Canberra.
Baptist, K. W. (2015). Incompatible identities: Memory and experience at the National September 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Emotion, Space and Society, 16, 3–8.
Beard, R. (2015). Exhibit review: The National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The Public Historian, 37(1), 150–153.
Biran, A., Poria, Y., & Oren, G. (2011). Sought experiences at (dark) heritage sites. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 820–841.
Blumer, N. (2015). Expanding museum spaces: Networks of difficult knowledge at and beyond the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 37(2–3), 125–146.
Carter, J., & Orange, J. (2012). Contentious terrain: Defining a human rights museology. Museum Management and Curatorship, 27(2), 111–127.
Corr, C., & Corr, D. (2012). Death & dying, life & living. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Dauncey, H., & Tinker, C. (2015). Media, memory and nostalgia in contemporary France: Between commemoration, memorialisation, reflection and restoration. Modern & Contemporary France, 23(2), 135–145.
Dekel, I. (2009). Ways of looking: Observation and transformation at the Holocaust Memorial, Berlin. Memory Studies, 2(1), 71–86.
Doka, K. J. (2003). Memorialization, ritual and public tragedy. In Lattanzi-Licht, M. & Doka, K. J. (Eds.) Living with Grief. Coping with Public Tragedy, Washington, DC: Hospice Foundation of America (pp. 179–189).
Failler, A. (2015). Hope without consolation: Prospects for critical learning at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 37(2–3), 227–250.
Frew, E. A. (2012). Interpretation of a sensitive heritage site: The Port Arthur Memorial Garden, Tasmania. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18(1), 33–48.
Frew, E. A. (2013). Dark tourism in the Top End: Commemorating the bombing of Darwin. In L. White & E. A. Frew (Eds.), Dark tourism and place identity: Managing and interpreting dark places (pp. 248–263). Oxon: Routledge.
Frew, E. A., & White, L. K. (Eds.). (2011). Tourism and national identities: An international perspective. Oxon: Routledge.
Garton Smith, J. (1999). Learning from popular culture: Interpretation, visitors and critique. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 5(3/4), 135–148.
Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory (trans. Coser, L. A.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hamber, B. (2012). Conflict museums, nostalgia, and dreaming of never again. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 18(3), 268.
Hankivsky, O., & Dhamoon, R. K. (2013). Which genocide matters the most? An intersectionality analysis of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 46(04), 899–920.
Hudson, K. (1977). Museums for the 1980s: A survey of world trends. Paris/London: UNESCO/Macmillan.
Kidron, C. A. (2013). Being there together: Dark family tourism and the emotive experience of co-presence in the holocaust past. Annals of Tourism Research, 41, 175–194.
Kropf, N. P., & Jones, B. L. (2014). When public tragedies happen: Community practice approaches in grief, loss, and recovery. Journal of Community Practice, 22(3), 281–298.
Lorente, J. P. (2012). The development of museum studies in universities: From technical training to critical museology. Museum Management and Curatorship, 27(3), 237–252.
Magee, R., & Gilmore, A. (2015). Heritage site management: From dark tourism to transformative service experience? The Service Industries Journal, 35(15–16), 898–917.
Mairesse, F., & Desvallées, A. (2010). Key concepts of museology, International Council of museums. Paris: Armand Colin.
McCall, V., & Gray, C. (2014). Museums and the ‘new museology’: Theory, practice and organisational change. Museum Management and Curatorship, 29(1), 19–35.
Muzaini, H., & Yeoh, B. (2005). Contesting ‘local’ commemoration of the Second World War: The case of the Changi Chapel and Museum in Singapore. Australian Geographer, 36(1), 1–17.
Nawijn, J., Isaac, R-K, Gridnevskiy, K., &, van Liempt, A. (2015). Holocaust concentration camp memorial sites: An exploratory study into expected emotional response, Current Issues in Tourism, https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2015.1058343.
Nicholls, S. (2006). Disaster memorials as government communication [online]. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 21(4), 36–43. Availability: http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=413036481093685;res=IELHSS. ISSN: 1324-1540. Cited 04 July 15.
Oren, G., & Shani, A. (2012). The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum: Educational dark tourism in a futuristic form. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 7(3), 255–270.
Rose, J. (2016). Interpreting difficult history at museums and historic sites. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ross, M. (2004). Interpreting the new museology. Museum and Society, 2(2), 84–100.
Segall, A. (2014). Making difficult history public: The pedagogy of remembering and forgetting in two Washington DC museums. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 36(1), 55–70.
Selimovic, J. M. (2013). Making peace, making memory: Peacebuilding and politics of remembrance at memorials of mass atrocities. Peacebuilding, 1(3), 334–348.
Sevcenko, L. (2010). Sites of conscience: New approaches to conflicted memory. Museum International, 62(1–2), 20–25.
Simon, R. I. (2011). A shock to thought: Curatorial judgment and the public exhibition of ‘difficult knowledge’. Memory Studies, 4(4), 432–449.
Sodaro, A. (2011). Exhibiting atrocity: Presentation of the past in memorial museums, PhD, New School University, New York, USA.
Sturken, M. (2015). The 9/11 memorial museum and the remaking of ground zero. American Quarterly, 67(2), 471–490.
Sturken, M. (2016). The objects that lived: The 9/11 museum and material transformation. Memory Studies, 9(1), 13–26.
Trofanenko, B. M. (2011). On difficult history displayed: The pedagogical challenges of interminable learning. Museum Management and Curatorship, 26(5), 481–495.
White, L. K., & Frew, E. A. (Eds.). (2013). Dark tourism and place identity: Managing and interpreting dark places. Oxon: Routledge.
Witcomb, A. (2013). Understanding the role of affect in producing a critical pedagogy for history museums. Museum Management and Curatorship, 28(3), 255–271.
Yair, G. (2014). Neutrality, objectivity, and dissociation: Cultural trauma and educational messages in German Holocaust memorial sites and documentation centers. Holocaust and Genocide Studies, 28(3), 482–509.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Frew, E. (2018). Exhibiting Death and Disaster: Museological Perspectives. In: R. Stone, P., Hartmann, R., Seaton, T., Sharpley, R., White, L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47566-4_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47566-4_28
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47565-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47566-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)