| Abstract [eng] |
History Narratives in the National Museums of the Baltic States: Between Tradition and Modernity National museums participate in the history politics of states, represent national collective memory, history narratives and construct identity. The traditional national museum presents an official, ethnocentric narrative of history, focused on the activities of the political elite, presenting mostly political history and not representing non-dominant, marginalized groups in society. The modern museum should involve various groups of society (including the marginalized) in the historical narrative, creating a museum of citizens. The statehood of the Baltic States is based on an ethnocentric narrative, therefore, it seems that the national museums of these countries should be more in line with the concept of a traditional museum. Nevertheless, in the national museums of the Baltic States, given the concepts of traditional and modern museums, we can find radically different presentations of history. The aim of this thesis is to answer the question, what causes the difference of historical narratives presented by the national museums of the Baltic States and how does this depend on the history policy of the states? Secondary question: having in mind the contarst between the concepts of traditional and modern museums, how do national museums in the Baltic States present national historical narratives? The object of this thesis is historical narratives in the permanent expositions of the national museums of the Baltic States (Lithuanian National Museum (LNM), Latvian National Museum of History (LNHM), Estonian National Museum (ENM)). The aim of the study is to assess the situation of collective memory construction in the Baltic States through the prism of traditional and modern museum concepts and to determine the extent to which the state influences the historical narratives created by museums. The thesis is based on the comparative analysis of exhibitions, interviews with museum curators, and legal documents determining the activities of museums. The results of the study show that all museums, although on different scales - the least LNM, the average LNHM, the most ENM - are in an intermediate state or far from the traditional museum. LNM and LNHM have both traditional and modern museum features, both dominated by political history but consisting multiculturalism. The ENM illustrates the modern national museum and does not have any features of a traditional museum (dominated by everyday history, citizens involved in the creation of the narrative in which various groups in society are presented). The research shows that multiculturalism is prevailing in all three cases (the only traditional and modern museum feature inherent to all three museums). In the sense of creating historical narratives the analyzed museums are autonomous towards the state, the curators of the museum - cultural elite are fully responsible for the creation of the historical narrative. The cases of LNHM and ENM show a radically different interpretation of a similar past, given that both Latvia and Estonia have no tangible historical experience of statehood, but LNHM emphasizes political history related to statehood, and ENM deliberately returns to everyday history, focus on an ordinary citizen due to lack of statehood experience. The study shows that the factors that determine the difference in museum narratives are the conscious choice of curators on how to interpret history (LNHM and ENM) and the structural reasons - (LNM). However, it should be borne in mind that, unlike LNM and LNHM, ENM created an entirely new permanent exhibition in new premises specially set up for this purpose and was not constrained by the legacy of previous permanent exhibitions. |
