Performing the Past

<p>A nostalgic interest in the past is a well-recognized feature of fast-changing, contemporary societies. It finds its expression in a variety of history-making practices of which the establishment of local heritage museums is a major manifestation in many parts of the world today. Katriel develops a communication-centered perspective on the study of heritage museums and -- by extension -- other tourist sites, highlighting the role of discourse in these institutionalized, yet vernacular contexts of cultural production, social legitimation, and identity formation. <br><br> Descriptive and critical in orientation, this book combines a close analysis of museum discourse with an exploration of such larger issues as:<br> * the socio-cultural role of museums as arenas for the production of collective memory, <br> * the ideological and performative constraints that shape museum presentations, <br> * the interfacing of verbal and visual codes of communication in the context of material displays, <br> * the dialectical interplay of the local and the global in contemporary life, and <br> * the interpenetration of the personal and the communal in vernacular processes of narrative production.<br><br> Of interest to scholars in communication, linguistics, anthropology, history, museum studies, tourism, intercultural communication, middle eastern studies, or those with interests in narratives, material culture, and ethnography.</p> <p><b>Contents: </b>Series Editors' Preface. By Way of Introduction. Studying Museums as Performative Arenas. The Tools Tell the Story: Narrative Trajectories in Settlement Museum Tours. Generational Styles in Settlement Museum Interpretation. Museum Encounters as Potentially Contested Sites. Contextualizing Settlement Museum Discourse.</p>