Skip to main content

Exhibiting Death and Disaster: Museological Perspectives

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies

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 to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Andermann, J., & Arnold-de Simine, S. (2012). Introduction memory, community and the new museum. Theory, Culture and Society, 29(1), 3–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashworth, G. J. (2002). Holocaust tourism: The experience of Krakow-Kazmierz. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 11(4), 363–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, C. (2013). Managing the new museology: The changing role, purpose and management of Australian museums since 1980. Unpublished dissertation, University of Canberra.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beard, R. (2015). Exhibit review: The National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The Public Historian, 37(1), 150–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biran, A., Poria, Y., & Oren, G. (2011). Sought experiences at (dark) heritage sites. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 820–841.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, J., & Orange, J. (2012). Contentious terrain: Defining a human rights museology. Museum Management and Curatorship, 27(2), 111–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corr, C., & Corr, D. (2012). Death & dying, life & living. Belmont: Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dekel, I. (2009). Ways of looking: Observation and transformation at the Holocaust Memorial, Berlin. Memory Studies, 2(1), 71–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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).

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frew, E. A., & White, L. K. (Eds.). (2011). Tourism and national identities: An international perspective. Oxon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garton Smith, J. (1999). Learning from popular culture: Interpretation, visitors and critique. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 5(3/4), 135–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory (trans. Coser, L. A.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamber, B. (2012). Conflict museums, nostalgia, and dreaming of never again. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 18(3), 268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, K. (1977). Museums for the 1980s: A survey of world trends. Paris/London: UNESCO/Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magee, R., & Gilmore, A. (2015). Heritage site management: From dark tourism to transformative service experience? The Service Industries Journal, 35(15–16), 898–917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mairesse, F., & Desvallées, A. (2010). Key concepts of museology, International Council of museums. Paris: Armand Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCall, V., & Gray, C. (2014). Museums and the ‘new museology’: Theory, practice and organisational change. Museum Management and Curatorship, 29(1), 19–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, J. (2016). Interpreting difficult history at museums and historic sites. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, M. (2004). Interpreting the new museology. Museum and Society, 2(2), 84–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Selimovic, J. M. (2013). Making peace, making memory: Peacebuilding and politics of remembrance at memorials of mass atrocities. Peacebuilding, 1(3), 334–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sevcenko, L. (2010). Sites of conscience: New approaches to conflicted memory. Museum International, 62(1–2), 20–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simon, R. I. (2011). A shock to thought: Curatorial judgment and the public exhibition of ‘difficult knowledge’. Memory Studies, 4(4), 432–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sodaro, A. (2011). Exhibiting atrocity: Presentation of the past in memorial museums, PhD, New School University, New York, USA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sturken, M. (2015). The 9/11 memorial museum and the remaking of ground zero. American Quarterly, 67(2), 471–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturken, M. (2016). The objects that lived: The 9/11 museum and material transformation. Memory Studies, 9(1), 13–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trofanenko, B. M. (2011). On difficult history displayed: The pedagogical challenges of interminable learning. Museum Management and Curatorship, 26(5), 481–495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, L. K., & Frew, E. A. (Eds.). (2013). Dark tourism and place identity: Managing and interpreting dark places. Oxon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Witcomb, A. (2013). Understanding the role of affect in producing a critical pedagogy for history museums. Museum Management and Curatorship, 28(3), 255–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

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)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics