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Museum Rhetoric

Building Civic Identity in National Spaces

ISBN-13: 9780271079035
Publisher: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
By M. Elizabeth Weiser
Price: AUD $152.00
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 02/01/2025
Format: Hardback 232 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: linguistics [CF]

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Table of Contents

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In today's diverse societies, museums are the primary institutions within the public sphere in which individuals can both engage critical thought and celebrate community. This volume uses the lens of rhetoric to explore the role these societal repositories play in establishing and altering cultural heritage and national identity.

Based on fieldwork conducted in over sixty museums in twenty-two countries across six continents, Museum Rhetoric explores how heritage museum exhibits persuade visitors to unite their own sense of identity with that of the broader civic society and how the latter changes in response. Elizabeth Weiser explores what compels communities, organizations, and nations to create museum spaces, and how museums operate as sites of both civic engagement and rhetorical persuasion. Moving beyond rhetorical explorations of museums as memory sites, she shows how they intentionally straddle the divides between style and content, intellect and affect, unity and diversity, and why their portrayal of the past matters to civic lifeand particularly studies of nationalismin the present and future.

Deeply researched and artfully argued, Museum Rhetoric sheds light on the public impact of cultural and aesthetic heritage and opens avenues of inquiry for scholars of museum studies and public history.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 The Rhetorical Museum

2 The Story We Tell Ourselves

3 The Object of the Story

4 Identifying with the Museum

5 Identifying with the Nation

6 Alternative Identifications

Conclusion: The Museum in the World

Appendix: Museums Examined for This Study

Notes

References

Index

“An impressive, globally aware, and deeply researched example of rhetoricians’ powerful purchase on the effectivities of museums.”

—Greg Dickinson, The Quarterly Journal of Speech

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Museum Rhetoric

Building Civic Identity in National Spaces