Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 6, 2021 at 7:05:55 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Poland]: Logemann on Jaeger, 'The Second World War > in the Twenty-First-Century Museum: From Narrative, Memory, and Experience to > Experientiality' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Stephan Jaeger. The Second World War in the Twenty-First-Century > Museum: From Narrative, Memory, and Experience to Experientiality. > Media and Cultural Memory / Medien und kulturelle Erinnerung Series. > Berlin De Gruyter, 2020. xiv + 354 pp. $99.99 (cloth), ISBN > 978-3-11-066106-4. > > Reviewed by Daniel Logemann (Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials > Foundation) > Published on H-Poland (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Anna Muller > > After reading Stephan Jaeger's book, one has the impression of having > been part of a long and dense museum experience. The work done by the > author is impressive. And even if not agreeing with every single > finding, readers will leave with a better understanding of how they > could--and possibly also should--walk through museums due to Jaeger's > preparation and discussion of the material, which establish sharp > instruments and clear methodology for the analysis of exhibitions. > > Jaeger's aim is clear. He analyzes twelve twenty-first-century > history museums in Canada, the United States, Poland, Belgium, Great > Britain, and Germany that deal with the Second World War. This > setting includes not only a thematic focus of these museums but also > Jaeger's presumption that they all use various and complex > presentation methods. All museum exhibitions are in one way or > another influenced by museum and exhibition architecture, multimedia, > and narrative structures, and many of them also use immersion > strategies. They offer their visitors an experience of a multilayered > museum space that creates together with visitors' consciousness an > emotional and intellectual imagination about history and memory. In > doing so, museums direct visitors to assumptions and interpretations. > > What distinguishes Jaeger's study from others is that he describes > the visitors' possibilities to get attached or to distance themselves > from the museum's presentation within the concept of experientiality, > which sheds light on the "interaction of narrative and reception" (p. > 48). In Jaeger's words: "This has the potential to advance the > analysis of how exhibitions emotionalize the visitor; how they create > proximity or distance to the historical subject-matter; how they > balance or blur the historical understanding of the past with the > cultural memory of the present; how they produce or steer ethical > statements and narrative structures; and how they allow for > reflection on methods of representing the past" (p. 7). Coming from > the theory of narratology--Jaeger cites Monika > Fludernik--experientiality is "the quasi-mimetic evocation of > 'real-life' experience" and therefore "becomes the analytical concept > with which to examine the representational and narrative potential of > an exhibition" (pp. 48, 49). Understanding fully the intention of the > transfer of the concept, I would mention that experientiality for me > focuses too much on the inner structure of museums and too little on > the broader context of what historians tackle under the concept of > historical culture. I shall come back to these debatable issues > later. > > After an introduction about analyzing museums by measuring their > possibilities to enfold experientiality, Jaeger presents three > museums that, from his point of view, are characterized by restricted > experientiality: the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, the Warsaw Rising > Museum in Warsaw, and the Imperial War Museum in London. All of them > limit experientiality because they follow a strong and unquestioned > master narrative that does not allow visitors to develop their own > consciousness toward (national) history. Furthermore, Jaeger sees a > burden for creating space for experientiality in the fact that in all > three museums an unquestioned memory culture dominates historical > matters. In the end, in all three museums visitors are not animated > to gain an active role. > > Making a clear distinction with restricted experientiality, Jaeger > sees primary experientiality as giving visitors the chance to > acknowledge the staged scenography of exhibitions and allowing them > "to experience perceptions and structures of the past" (p. 94). > Examples of museums that foster primary experientiality are the > National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the Oskar Schindler's Enamel > Factory in Kraków, and the Bastogne War Museum. In all exhibitions, > experientiality prevails ideology, yet historical events are > simulated. To understand Jaeger's argumentation how several forms of > experientiality can be distinguished, it is worth mentioning how he > describes the mode of presentation in Oskar Schindler's Enamel > Factory: traveling in time while going through merely theatrical > settings and staged spaces, visitors are able to establish borders > between the suggested world of the exhibition and themselves as > spectators. > > Secondary experientiality gives visitors the possibility to interpret > and understand intertwined levels of exhibitions along their own > observations. It does not offer simulations as if history could be > re-experienced during a museum visit. Visitors are asked to make up > their own minds out of human condition in war times in the following > museums: the Bundeswehr Military Museum in Dresden, the Imperial War > Museum North in Manchester, and the Topography of Terror in Berlin. > Interestingly enough, these museums that offer visitors secondary > experientiality are mostly based on photographs and objects and do > not reconstruct settings of immersion, and--even more > important--allow for multifold interpretations from different angles. > When it comes, for example, to the Topography of Terror, Jaeger > convinces readers that the "montage effect" and "visualization > techniques" create a vivid imagination of, for instance, German > terror in occupied Poland and even attach visitors emotionally (pp. > 165, 171). > > Following the discussion of restricted, primary, and secondary > experientiality by giving three examples of each type, Jaeger turns > his attention to transnational museums, namely, the German-Russian > Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst, the Museum of the Second World War in > Gdańsk, and the House of European History in Brussels. Quite > logically, these museums, more than the previous ones, focus on > collective experiences and not on one national entity. All forms of > experientiality are visible in these settings: the best example for > secondary experientiality is the German-Russian Museum, where a > cleverly built comparison ("simultaneity") between German and Russian > history and memory accompanies visitors (p. 174). The Museum of the > Second World War in Gdańsk allows for secondary experientiality, > presenting experiences of many collectives, yet it relies heavily on > a master narrative of Polish victimhood due to German and Soviet > occupation and terror. Reading the short chapter about the House of > European History, it becomes clearer that for Jaeger secondary > experientiality museums are good in storytelling, which, according to > him, is lacking in the Brussels museum. In addition, no networking > effects of exhibition layers are happening there; one almost feels > the author's disappointment when he concludes that the House of > European History offers a restricted experientiality. > > As if these dense chapters of analysis and comprehension were not > enough, three cross-over topics follow. Jaeger explores strategies of > presenting perpetration through Holocaust sections, suffering through > the topic of air war, and the role of art in war museums. Even if > agreeing with the author that art can help visitors to imagine > historical experiences, the topic of art is a little bit out of > order--especially when considering that only a few of the discussed > exhibitions make use of pieces of art. More convincing is Jaeger's > attempt to compare museums' strategies to show perpetrators and > victims in a cross section about many exhibitions. The Holocaust in > most museums is presented as a singular crime, yet it is at the same > time structurally embedded within violence of war. In Jaeger's > interpretation, once again especially the German exhibitions create > the possibility for secondary experientiality. > > Since Jaeger states in the beginning of his book that he wants to > "avoid judgment about which method is 'better,'" at the end the > reader gets a clear impression why primary and, even moreso, > secondary experientiality are somehow the result of more advanced > strategies of the representation of history (p. 12). Museum > exhibitions characterized by experientiality allow visitors to > dismantle the techniques with which arguments and interpretations are > presented. If this is made possible for Jaeger, the chosen > technique/media and also the connection with visitors--be it > cognitively or emotionally--are secondary attributes. He is clearly > critical about ideological discourses not giving a picture of > history's complexity. For him the benefit of analyzing museums by > making use of the concept of experientiality helps "to understand how > exhibitions allow for distantiation, for openness and closure, and > how they manipulate the visitor into specific didactic, ideological, > or ethical beliefs" (p. 307). > > A question remains: does experientiality in Jaegers's concept also > explain how museums "react to existing cultural memory" (p. 306)? The > author sticks mostly to the museums and their inner logics. Only on > rare occasions, for example, when discussing the Museum of the Second > World War in Gdańsk (which was in the eye of a nationwide conflict > of how to present Polish history), does Jaeger explore a bit more > about the role of historical culture in societies. Is it because of > that additional context that I have the impression that Jaeger's > analysis of the museum in Gdańsk gives a more complete picture of > how exhibitions evolve from complex constellations? > > In all other cases the gaze of visitors decides if an exhibition is > experiential or not while circumstances for curatorial decisions are > not consequently taken under consideration. Not to misunderstand me, > this perspective on museums is fully legitimate. Yet history and > memory are very much influenced by politics and society. When not > interpreting the connection between museums' representations and > historical culture, one simply can miss the evidence of why a certain > discourse ends up in a certain presentation of history. Astonishing > enough, the vast majority of secondary experientiality can be > observed in Germany; hence, in Poland we see a mixture with a > tendency of restricted and primary experientialty, and the same is > true for Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. I guess that > these tendencies of elaborating experientiality in museums have first > of all to do with discourses within societies, for example, seeing > themselves as "victims" and "perpertrators." These discourses > determine how history can be presented in public and how far > ideological strains of memory influence exhibitions. > > The subtitle of the book--"From Narrative, Memory, and Experience to > Experientiality"--is maybe too big a promise when one asks how > narratives and memories evolve in societies and influence museum > presentations. Yet it gives an impression of Jaeger's intention, > which he is able to fulfill to a high degree by a dense and > reflective interpretation of history museums. I myself, knowing most > of the European museums under discussion, see great potential in > Jaeger's access and reading of museum exhibitions and was delighted > by many of the relevant interpretations, inviting further > reflections, of this recommendable book. > > Citation: Daniel Logemann. Review of Jaeger, Stephan, _The Second > World War in the Twenty-First-Century Museum: From Narrative, Memory, > and Experience to Experientiality_. H-Poland, H-Net Reviews. April, > 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55389 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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