Museums and the Interpretation of The Past

CL-M31

MA module taught by Egypt Centre for the Department of Classics and Ancient History 

General Theme:

Museums interpret the past according to limitations imposed by: knowledge of the time; their various peer group demands; constraints of conservation, labelling; available artefacts; tradition, etc. This course will examine how and why museums place particular interpretations on the past. We will use Egyptology and the Egypt Centre as an example, although the theory learnt can be applied to other museums. 

The course could largely be seen as that of the New Museology (http://museumstudies.si.edu/claims2000.htm. ; Vergo 1989) in that it questions the ‘master narrative’ and looks at the relative nature of museum interpretation. However, students do not necessarily need to agree with the aims of the New Museology, merely to understand. This course will not cover all aspects of how museums interpret the past, but will only select parts. It will not deal with areas such as the relationship between the ancient Egyptians and their material culture; the excavation process and its effect on interpretation. It will deal with how museums interpret Egyptology. Specifically we will look the ‘political’ and social influences upon museum interpretation (including current ideas of gender, the nature of collecting, Darwinian evolutionist ideas, national identity, orientalism, etc.) and well as the practical issues which may influence museum display. We will also touch upon some of the practical problems which influence museum interpretation such as conservation. We will be dealing largely, though not exclusively, with British museums.

The topics covered:

• Introduction to museums; History of museums. Basic differences in museum interpretation will be considered as a result of the cultural milieu within which they are situated

• How different discipline areas influence display

• Museum communication- the building display and labeling and its affect on communication

• Museums and power. Do museums simply mirror the ideas of the elite?

• Psychological and physical access to museum collections; scholarship v. accessibility

• Museums and national identity

• Display of the exotic/different

• Museums and gender

• Fetishism, connoissership and the importance of the object

• Historical, functionalist and structuralist views of the past

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