Captives of Narrative : Scandinavian Museum Exhibits and Polar Ambitions

• This article compares the histories of two museums of polar exploration, both founded in the 1930s but based on well-known expeditions dating back to the decades around 1900. The first is the Fram Museum in Oslo, centered around the famous Norwegian polar ship, the second is the Andrée Museum in Gränna, com-bining accounts of the ill-fated balloon expedition with a polar centre reflecting more recent polar research activities. The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between museum and narrative. Museums are shapers of narrative but at the same time shaped by the narratives they relate. The article explores the symbolic and medialized dimensions of polar research, expressed in museums, as well as the way in which museums in-terrelate with national identities and selfimages. What does it mean to be a modern polar nation? And how is such an identity expressed in cultural terms? In which ways can museum institutions and exhibi-tions be used as means for such expressions? And how do “the grand narratives” of Sweden and Norway relate to the epic representations of polar activities, presented by the museums?

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Polar museums

polar history

narrative

nationalism

The Andrée Expedition 1897

The Fram Expedition 1893–96

Oslo

Gränna

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)