Open AccessCaptives of Narrative: Scandinavian Museum Exhibits and Polar Ambitions
Author(s) -
Anders Houltz
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
culture unbound
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.256
H-Index - 7
ISSN - 2000-1525
DOI - 10.3384/cu.2000.1525.10239719
Subject(s) - exhibition , narrative , epic , norwegian , national identity , identity (music) , history , polar , literature , art , art history , aesthetics , political science , politics , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , astronomy
This article compares the histories of two museums of polar exploration, both founded in the 1930s but based on well-known expeditions dating back to the decades around 1900. The first is the Fram Museum in Oslo, centered around the famous Norwegian polar ship, the second is the Andrée Museum in Gränna, com-bining accounts of the ill-fated balloon expedition with a polar centre reflecting more recent polar research activities. The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between museum and narra-tive. Museums are shapers of narrative but at the same time shaped by the narra-tives they relate. The article explores the symbolic and medialized dimensions of polar research, expressed in museums, as well as the way in which museums in-terrelate with national identities and self-images. What does it mean to be a modern polar nation? And how is such an identity expressed in cultural terms? In which ways can museum institutions and exhibi-tions be used as means for such expressions? And how do “the grand narratives” of Sweden and Norway relate to the epic representations of polar activities, pre-sented by the museums