Navigating Trauma Narratives: The Role of Museums in the Transmission of ‘Difficult’ Heritage to Children

Gabriele Carmelo Rosato

doi:10.18535/sshj.v7i12.888

Abstract

War is among those topics that have always been present in the history of humanity and morally complex to tell in contemporary society. Parents, teachers and other agents of the educational community wonder whether or not it is appropriate to talk to children about conflicts. The reception of such stories fluctuates between the dimension of celebration and commemoration. Therefore, what was once seen as a sign of a country’s power can later be reinterpreted as a cause for regret. Many explicit representations of colonialism are now considered a problematic and shameful legacy, which is why the museums that recount and exhibit historical traumas have special responsibilities.

References

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[refR-2] Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, Verso: London.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-3] Bounia, A., & Stylianou-Lambert, T. (2013). War Museums and Photography. In W. Muchitsch (Ed.), Does War Belong in Museums?: The Representation of Violence in Exhibitions (pp. 155–172). Transcript VerlagGoogle Scholar ↗

[refR-4] Browder, L. (2015). How to tell a true war story… for children. In D. Kieran (Ed.), The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror (pp. 85–105). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-5] Colarusso, K. D. (1986). World War II and Its Relevance to Today’s Adolescents, in ALAN Review, 13(2, winter 1986), 12–14.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-6] D’Alessandro, B. (2022). Raccontare il trauma della Shoah: tra memoria e postmemoria. In de Rogatis, T. & Wehling-Giorgi, K. (Eds.), Trauma Narratives in Italian and Transnational Women’s Writing (pp. 141–163). Sapienza Università Editrice: Rome.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-7] Deineko, O. (2022). War in Ukraine: A Sociological Study. Oslo: Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-8] Diab, K. (2023). How trauma drives the politics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. New Lines Magazine, 2023, November 22. https://newlinesmag.com/argument/how-trauma-drives-the-politics-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/Google Scholar ↗

[refR-9] Établissement Public Musée de l’Armée. Hôtel National des Invalides (2010) Rapport D’activité, 8.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-10] Feldman, J. (2007). Between Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl: Changing Inscriptions of Sacrifice on Jerusalem’s “Mountain of Memory.” Anthropological Quarterly, 80(4), 1147–1174.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-11] Galway, E. A. (2016). What Shall We Tell the Children? Narratives of War in First World War Children’s Literature, in D. Owen, M. C. Pividori (Eds.). Writings of Persuasion and Dissonance in the Great War. That Better Whiles May Follow Worse (pp. 237–251). Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-12] Gijs, C., & Faris, S. (2022, June 2). Lumumba’s tooth: Belgium’s unfinished reckoning with its colonialpast. POLITICO. https://www.politico.eu/article/lumumba-tooth-belgium-unfinished-reckoning-colonial-past/Google Scholar ↗

[refR-13] Halilović, J. (Ed.) (2017). War Childhood: Sarajevo 1992-1995. War Childhood Museum: Sarajevo.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-14] Johnson, E. J. (2008). Illustrated Wartime Propaganda for Children. in E. Goodenough, A. Immel (Eds.), Under Fire: Childhood in the Shadow of war. Landscapes of Childhood (pp. 59–76). Detroit: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-15] Key, E. (1909). The Century of the Child, G.P. Putnam’s Sons: New York.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-16] Kjeldbaek, E. (Ed.) (2009), The Power of the Object: Museums and World War II, MuseumsEtc: Edinburgh-New York.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-17] Lehrer, E., Milton, C.E. & Patterson, M.E. (2011).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-18] Curating Difficult Heritage: Violent Pasts in Public Places. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-19] Lewin, A. (1997). Tracing the pedagogic thought of Janusz Korczak. Dialogue and Universalism, 7(9), 119–125.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-20] Lippard, C. D., Osinsky, P., & Strauss, L. (2018). War: Contemporary Perspectives on Armed Conflicts Around the World.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-21] Logan, W. & Reeves, K. (Eds.) (2009). Places of Pain and Shame. Dealing with ‘Difficult Heritage’. London: Routledge.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-22] Lu, F. (2017). Museum architecture as spatial storytelling of historical time: Manifesting a primary example of Jewish space in Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum, Frontiers of Architectural Research, 6(4), 442–455.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-23] Macdonald, S. (2009). Difficult Heritage: Negotiating the Nazi Past in Nuremberg and Beyond, Routledge, London-New York.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-24] Macdonald, S. (2013). Memorylands. Heritage and Identity in Europe Today. London: Routledge.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-25] MacDougall, J. & Ender, M. G. (2003). Teaching the sociology of peace, war, and social conflict: a curriculum guide (3rd ed.). American Sociological Association.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-26] Malešević, S. (2010). The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-27] Manna, R., & Palumbo, R. (2018). What makes a museum attractive to young people? Evidence from Italy. Int J Tourism Res. 20, 508–517.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-28] McIsaac, P. M., & Mueller, G. (Eds.). (2015). Exhibiting the German Past: Museums, Film, and Musealization. University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-29] Mugglestone, L. (2016). English Words in War-Time. In: Walker, J., Declercq, C. (Eds.) Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War. Palgrave Studies in Languages at War. Palgrave Macmillan: London.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-30] Mulligan, J.E. (2010). Jerusalem Holocaust Memorial & Palestinians’ Plight, In Monthly Review, 61(8).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-31] Neto, P. (2007). Strategic Planning of Territorial Image and Attractability. In: Matias, Á., Nijkamp, P., Neto, P. (eds) Advances in Modern Tourism Research. Physica-Verlag HDGoogle Scholar ↗

[refR-32] Niksic, L. (2020). Affect of War: Content analysis of the War Childhood Musem in Sarajevo, In Bouniaand, A. & Hendrick, C. (Eds.) Studying Museums in Qatar and Beyond (pp. 100-128), UCL Qatar: Doha.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-33] Ostow R. (2008). Introduction: Museums and National Identities in Europe in the Twenty-First Century, in Ostow R. (Eds.), (Re)Visualizing National History: Museums and National Identities in Europe in the New Millennium, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 3-12.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-34] Paris, M. (2004). Over the Top: The Great War and Juvenile Literature in Britain. Westport: Praeger.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-35] Peressut, L. B. (2017). Rappresentare le guerre al museo, in Storicamente, 13(6).Google Scholar ↗

[refR-36] Rekdal, P. B. (2013). About the Beauty of War and the Attractivity of Violence, In W. Muchitsch (Ed.), Does War Belong in Museums? The Representation of Violence in Exhibitions, Transcript Verlag: Bielefeld, 123–130.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-37] Santa Barbara J. (2006). Impact of war on children and imperative to end war. Croatian medical journal, 47(6), 891–894.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-38] Sawyer, K. K. (1991). Experiencing War, in Five Owls 5, 4(March-April 1991), 86–7.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-39] Seaton, A.V. (1996). From thanatopsis to Thanatourism. International Journal of Heritage Research, 2(4), 234–244.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-40] Singer, I. B. (1985). Stories for Children, New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-41] Slater, A. (2016). Adult Influences in the Construction of Youth War Diaries. Undergraduate Research Journal, 20, Article 7.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-42] Tunbridge, J.E. & Ashworth, G.J. 1996. Dissonant Heritage. The Management of the Past as a Resource in Conflict. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-43] Williams, P. (2007). Memorial Museums. The Global Rush to Commemorate Atrocities. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar ↗

[refR-44] Winter, J. (2013). Museums and the Representation of War. In W. Muchitsch (Ed.), Does War Belong in Museums?: The Representation of Violence in Exhibitions (pp. 21–38). Transcript Verlag.Google Scholar ↗