Public history. Praktiky, média, instituce

Abstract

Although the book was written within the framework of the study of museum studies at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, Prague, it can be used for a variety of purposes. In addition to being a tool for students, it is also a basic orientation tool for academics and practitioners in the field of public history. The aim of the publication is to present the broadest area of the use of the past through the diverse perspectives and formats embedded in contemporary memory and museum studies. The book is divided into two parts. The first is a study by the editors that presents public history from the perspective of three concepts: practices, media and institutions. These keywords allow us to view specific manifestations of cultural memory from different perspectives or with different emphases. The section on practices describes activities dedicated to the past that are practiced both in public space (participation in a historical event) and in private (family history). The section on media discusses key media of memory and continuously emphasizes the emergence of new media that have qualitatively transformed the dynamics of contemporary memory culture. The section on institutions does not only emphasize traditional memory institutions, but also non-profit organizations or associations. It also addresses the topics of institutional criticism and decolonization. The study also includes two specific formats. “Interventions” provide readers with examples of successful interventions in the cultural memory. These present examples of good practice that have intervened in the public space and helped to reveal the otherwise invisible mechanisms of how memory works. “Tasks” are specific prompts for readers to do their own research or find solutions to a particular problem. These assignments can be used by teachers in the classroom, but also by other readers as illustrations of problems encountered by practitioners in the field of public history. The second part of the book consists of translations of texts dealing with contemporary phenomena in the field of cultural memory and public history. First is the text “Practices of authenticity by Australian” scholar and curator Stephen Gapps. The concept of authenticity is one of the important but difficult to grasp terms in the field of public history. That is why we devote one of the translations in this book to it. The text was originally published in the context of the Handbook of Reanactment Studies. However, reenactment is here understood broadly as a phenomenon permeating the entire culture of remembrance, from Holocaust memory to medieval craft festivals. In his text, Gapps not only outlines the basic development of the meaning of the term, but also draws attention to the ethical and political controversies that accompany reenactments of various historical events. The author also presents arguments for why academics should be concerned with reenactment and ways of negotiating authenticity in these communities. Jasminko Halilović’s text is the introduction to the publication accompanying the exhibition at the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo. Halilović describes the creation of this museum dedicated to the siege of Sarajevo in 1992–1996. The text shows what the process of the birth of such an institution at the intersection of civic activism, entrepreneurship and education can look like. Furthermore, this institution is an important example of a particular community coming to terms with a relatively recent traumatic event and trying to find a language to present the siege to foreign visitors. Among other reasons, we choose this text because it presents a project that did not primarily emerge from academia or traditional memory institutions, and thus offers a different perspective than the remaining translations. The debates around the term “medievalism” focus on the ideas circulating about the Middle Ages and their use in popular culture and politics. Although Richard Utz’s texts are also relevant to Central Europe, here we select texts by the Australian historian and political scientist Helen Young and the medieval historian and literary scholar Kavita Mudan Finn. Young focuses on the global manifestations of this phenomenon and distinguishes between temporal and spatial medievalism. The text does not lack a critical dimension as it leads its readers to consider how ideas about the medieval period are changing over time, what they are used for, and how medievalists and non-medievalists contribute to them. In his text, the author connects medievalism with historicizing architecture, J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Vikings series. We believe that the text can help to place Czech medievalism in a global context and contribute to its reflection. Overall, this text is as much a theoretical foundation on which to build one’s own studies or professional development as it is a call to action. As authors, we would like it to encourage its readers to step out into the terrain of public space, becoming sensitive to the various ways in which the past is present in it.