"Cultural heritage and the mediation of identity, memory and historical narratives"

Conférence dans le cadre du colloque "Le passé et nous: De la conscience historique au XXIe siècle" / "The past around us: Historical Consciousness in the XXIst Century"

Québec, 29 septembre au 1er octobre 2011

This paper will outline some of the key findings of visitor interviews undertaken in England, Australia and the US. The work compares visitor responses to the representation of history at heritage sites and museums representing national narratives, as well as those museums and heritage sites that represent challenges to master narratives and/or represent subaltern understandings of history and the present. The paper will compare findings not only from the different genres of museum/heritage sites, but also between the different national contexts. How
visitors in these different museum and national contexts use the past to negotiate contemporary social and political issues is also explored and some of the strategies that people use to both engage and disengage with historical interpretation are identified. The issues this then presents for the way the past is used to rethink the present, sense of self and of place are discussed.