TY - JOUR
T1 - "Forgettings that want to be remembered"
T2 - Museums and Hauntings
AU - Walklate, Jen
N1 - Open Access via the Taylor and Francis/JISC Open Select agreement
PY - 2023/11/16
Y1 - 2023/11/16
N2 - This paper hypothesises that museums are fundamentally haunted, and hauntological, institutions, and argues that understanding the spectre is necessary to understanding the true position and potential of the museum as a cultural form. In doing so, the paper will address what precisely spectres are, and what hauntology is, before discussing how museums are haunted and hauntological through their relation to memory, anxiety, and the unheimliche. Ultimately, the key argument and conclusion of this paper is that understanding and accepting the museum’s inherently haunted status can enable us to change how museums behave in the twenty-first century, and how we understand their role in public life.
AB - This paper hypothesises that museums are fundamentally haunted, and hauntological, institutions, and argues that understanding the spectre is necessary to understanding the true position and potential of the museum as a cultural form. In doing so, the paper will address what precisely spectres are, and what hauntology is, before discussing how museums are haunted and hauntological through their relation to memory, anxiety, and the unheimliche. Ultimately, the key argument and conclusion of this paper is that understanding and accepting the museum’s inherently haunted status can enable us to change how museums behave in the twenty-first century, and how we understand their role in public life.
U2 - 10.1080/0969725X.2023.2270356
DO - 10.1080/0969725X.2023.2270356
M3 - Article
VL - 28
SP - 71
EP - 83
JO - Angelaki: A Journal of the Theoretical Humanities
JF - Angelaki: A Journal of the Theoretical Humanities
IS - 6
ER -