Introduction

Abstract

Mediating Memory in the Museum is a contribution to an emerging field of research which is situated at the interface between memory studies and museum studies. It seeks to gain some perspective on the role of museums in the proliferation of the so-called memory boom as well as on the influence of memory and remembrance discourses on transnational and international trends in museum cultures. By looking at a range of case studies it outlines the paradigm shifts in exhibiting practices associated with the transformation of traditional history museums, exhibitions and heritage sites into ‘spaces of memory’ over the last 30 years. It probes the political and ethical claims of new museums and maps the relevance of key concepts such as ‘vicarious trauma’, ‘secondary witnessing’, ‘empathic unsettlement’ (LaCapra 2001), ‘prosthetic memory’ (Landsberg 2004), ‘post-nostalgia’ (Jameson 1991) and ‘reflective nostalgia’ (Boym 2001) within academic and museum contexts. Its aim is to identify the aesthetic, ethical and political implications of new practices of historical remembrance for museums and heritage sites.KeywordsHeritage SiteMaster NarrativeHistorical RemembranceVicarious TraumaMemory CommunityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.