Negotiating the dominance of a colonial narrative: the challenging work of historical interpreters

协商殖民叙事的主导地位：历史解释者的挑战性工作

• 批准号: 2615835
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Kent
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2615835
• 关键词: Negotiating; dominance; colonial; narrative; challenging

My PhD will detail the mechanisms that preserve colonial narratives at heritage sites, providing timely, practical insights for Native and non-Native historical interpreters, who I define as those who renegotiate and share a historical narrative. I propose a multi-method study, incorporating ethnography, historical discourse analysis and archival research at four core heritage sites in England, Northern Ireland and Turtle Island (Vancouver and Massachusetts). During seven months of multi-sited fieldwork, I plan to examine entanglements between Indigenous and non-Native historical interpreters, through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. To understand the historical contexts of Indigenous representations evoked in these exchanges, I will consult on-site archives. I aim to undertake historical discourse analysis with particular attention to how the heritage site's public-facing narratives have changed, including exhibition signage and promotional materials. I also plan to draw on secondary historical accounts, and will work collaboratively with historians, David Stirrup (UK), Coll Thrush (Canada) and Thomas Wickman (USA), as well as a network of Native American and First Nation's public historians.My research and fieldwork aspirations will be supported by Kent's Centre for American Studies, with its rare focus on Indigenous Studies, early European colonisation and strong connections with US and Canadian universities. My work will also contribute significantly to the new Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies. My research expands on a growing movement in American Studies, to apply decolonised methodologies to relocate Indigenous people at the centre, rather than the periphery of historical narratives. Coll Thrush, and David Stirrup with the Beyond the Spectacle project, examine historical records to reveal the instrumental role of Indigenous people in shaping the UK. Drawing on Jace Weaver's Red Atlantic, Thrush and Stirrup reject the notion that they are rediscovering Indigenous influence but argue that they are reclaiming accounts from an enforced silence. My PhD will meaningfully build on this work, by changing the focus from Indigenous historical experience to a detailed analysis of contemporary Native engagements with settler-colonial heritage sites and historical narratives. Through this focus, I will uncover the structures and representations that continue to 'enforce' the silencing of Indigenous history.This research addresses a gap in existing literature that fails to examine the challenging, emotive work of historical interpretation. In examining this practice, my study sits at the intersection of postcolonial theory, critical heritage studies, ethnohistory, decolonisation theory and Indigenous studies. Postcolonial heritage theorists such as Tim Luke, Patricia Davison, Alex Tyrrell and James Walvin, present a fundamental challenge to naturalised notions of history in demonstrating the nation-building role of heritage. My thesis will draw on these studies to consider how the Indigenous 'other', and a celebratory colonial narrative, are produced through the heritage site. Nevertheless, I suggest that these studies have consistently underexamined the work of historical interpreters, and the diversity of their professional and personal identities. I argue that the dominant image of the historical interpreter as a nation-building curator overlooks the use of historical interpretation to challenge and subvert self-affirming national narratives. I suggest that a theoretical foundation for the examination of this 'subversive' use of historical interpretation is essential for understanding central debates in heritage, such as appropriate memorialisation, repatriation and the impact of Black Lives Matter.

我的博士学位将详细介绍在遗产地保存殖民叙事的机制，为原住民和非原住民历史口译员提供及时、实用的见解，我将他们定义为重新谈判和分享历史叙事的人。我提出了一个多方法的研究，结合民族志，历史话语分析和档案研究在英格兰，北方爱尔兰和海龟岛（温哥华和马萨诸塞州）的四个核心遗址。在为期七个月的多地点实地考察中，我计划通过参与式观察和半结构化访谈来研究土著和非土著历史解释者之间的纠缠。为了了解这些交流中引发的土著代表的历史背景，我将查阅现场档案。我的目标是进行历史话语分析，特别关注遗产地的公众叙事如何发生变化，包括展览标志和宣传材料。我还计划利用次要的历史记录，并将与历史学家，大卫斯蒂鲁普（英国），科尔画眉（加拿大）和托马斯威克曼（美国），以及美洲原住民和第一民族的公共历史学家网络合作。我的研究和实地考察的愿望将得到支持肯特的美国研究中心，其罕见的重点是土著研究，早期的欧洲殖民地，与美国和加拿大大学的紧密联系。我的工作也将大大有助于新的土著和定居者殖民地研究中心。我的研究扩展了美国研究中日益增长的运动，应用非殖民化的方法重新安置土著人民的中心，而不是历史叙事的边缘。科尔画眉，和大卫马镫与超越幽灵项目，检查历史记录，以揭示土著人民在塑造英国的工具作用。借鉴杰斯·韦弗的《红色大西洋》，画眉和斯蒂鲁普拒绝接受他们正在重新发现土著影响力的说法，但认为他们正在从强迫沉默中收回账户。我的博士学位将有意义地建立在这项工作的基础上，通过将重点从土著历史经验转变为对当代土著与定居者殖民遗址和历史叙事的详细分析。通过这一重点，我将揭示的结构和表示，继续“执行”土著history.This研究沉默解决现有文献中的差距，未能检查历史解释的挑战性，情绪化的工作。在研究这种做法，我的研究坐在后殖民理论，批判遗产研究，民族史，非殖民化理论和土著研究的交叉点。后殖民遗产理论家，如蒂姆·卢克，帕特里夏·戴维森，亚历克斯·泰瑞尔和詹姆斯·沃尔文，提出了一个根本性的挑战，自然化的历史观念，在展示国家建设的作用遗产。我的论文将借鉴这些研究，考虑如何土著“他者”，并庆祝殖民叙事，通过遗产地产生。尽管如此，我认为这些研究一直对历史解释者的工作，以及他们职业和个人身份的多样性进行了不足的检查。我认为，历史解释者作为一个国家建设策展人的主导形象忽视了使用历史解释来挑战和颠覆自我肯定的民族叙事。我认为，这种“颠覆性”的历史解释的使用检查的理论基础是必不可少的理解遗产的核心辩论，如适当的纪念，遣返和黑人的生活问题的影响。