Description
Book SynopsisExamines the performance techniques of Living History Museums, cultural institutions that merge historical exhibits with costumed live performance. This work analyses institutions such as Plimouth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg from a theatrical perspective, offering a genealogy of living museum performance.
Trade ReviewAfter outlining a new history of these performances in the United States and Europe, Magelssen offers suggestions for their improvement, which he sates is achievable if museums abandon their 'just-the-facts' mentality and embrace alternative modes of performance. * Museum News, Vol. 86, No. 4, July/August 2007 *
...points out the dilemmas of living interpretation, from misleading visitors about time and history to perpetuating outmoded linear views of historical progress. * Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie, Vol. 68, No. 8, September 2007 *
An external researcher rather than a participant in living museums or a particular fan of them, Magelssen (theater arts, Augustana College, Illinois), examines the performance practices, philosophies, and curatorial methods they have used to stage the past through the 20th and into the 21st centuries, and how they see themselves as the very products of these practices. * Reference and Research Book News, May 2007 *
Table of ContentsPart 1 Acknowledgments Part 2 Introduction Part 3 Chapter 1 The Dilemmas of Contemporary Living History Museum Historiography in Theory and Practice Chapter 4 The Progressive Development Narrative of Living History Museum History Chapter 5 Progressive Histories: Major Works Chapter 6 The Progressive Development Narrative in Practice Chapter 7 (In)authentic Revolutions: Time, Space, and Living History Museums Chapter 8 Plimoth Plantation Chapter 9 Colonial WIlliamsburg Chapter 10 Old Sturbridge Village Chapter 11 Storytelling vs. Scientific Discourse Part 12 Chapter 2 Toward a New Genealogy of Living History Museum Performance Chapter 13 A Historiography of Immanence Chapter 14 Defining the Episteme Chapter 15 An Emergence within a Shifting Field Chapter 16 Capitalizing on the Past—Capitalizing on Loss Chapter 17 Social History and the Trajectory of Living Museum Performance Chapter 18 The Naturalistic Ideal Chapter 19 Living History as Pleasure Part 20 Chapter 3 Performace as Historiography at Living History Museums Chapter 21 The Historiography of Performance Chapter 22 The Field Chapter 23 Missed Opportunities Chapter 24 Alternatives to the Naturalistic Mode Chapter 25 Post-Tourists and Living History Performace Part 26 Conclusion Part 27 Appendix: Selected Living History Programming Sites Part 28 Bibliography Part 29 Index Part 30 About the Author
