Muzeum. Tezy metahistoryczne

Abstract

THE MUSEUM. METAHISTORICAL THESES

The author formulates nine theses about the museum from the metahistorical perspective, i.e. using the tools of cultural theory. This perspective makes all the different dimensions of the museum equal due to its humanistic status. The museum, as Florian Znaniecki would have said, is equipped with the humanistic coefficient, and the author chooses to call this inalienable parameter of the human aspect of the museum’s identity the historical coefficient. In other words, the humanistic coefficient means none other than historical relativity (in Joseph Margolis’ terms). In this context, the following theses / problems formulated in the paper seem legitimate:
Thesis 1. To the question whether we can indicate a status quo (artefact) which does not undergo musealisation the author answers: yes ex natura, no.
Thesis 2. Is it possible to musealise history?
Thesis 3. Anything that exists beyond the museum narrative is not a museum artefact.
Thesis 4. Cultural artefacts are not historical sources per se.
Thesis 5. Heritage artefacts of a given community have the chance to become museum artefacts.
Thesis 6. Museums of the rank of the Polish History Museum, as well as other similar museum centres, are the result of an interplay between politics of memory, politics of heritage, and politics of history.
Thesis 7. Let us repeat: history at a museum is the result of a power clash between politics of memory, politics of heritage, and politics of history.
Thesis 8. An artefact’s museum label is an equivalent of the specification of a historical / historiographical fact.
Thesis 9. A factual (or, in a sense, reistic) museum exhibition replaces an event centered historical narrative with an array of artefacts which represent it.